The thing in the drain

You never realize how much you appreciate long, hot showers in the winter until you can't have them for a few days.

So, our tub has been draining kinda slowly lately. This happens every few months, so we lift up the trap, clean it out a bit and move on. Yesterday, I had the day off from school, so I thought I'd tackle the drain. I cleaned it out, but the water still wasn't draining very well. On to the plunger method! Still not much drainage. Next weapon: baking soda and vinegar! Still not much drainage. Run to Walmart, grab a home pipe-snake and run that! Still slow. Drain-O Gel! STILL slow. If anything, it's gotten SLOWER. We give up and call the landlady, who gets us in contact with a plumber. They run their industrial pipe-snake and...STILL slow. Plumber's acidic drain-cleaner stuff? Nope, still not working.

So as of last night, we had about an inch of standing gunky water that took five hours to drain, and cancerous fumes from the acidic drain-cleaner stuff flowing through the house on a night when it's 15 degrees outside. I mention the temperature because it means we couldn't open the windows for very long. I mean, we DID open the windows, but we left the house for like, two hours. But our shower/tub is out of commission, until at least Monday. At which point, they'll be knocking out a wall to fix the plumbing.

And the thing is that in the summer, I hate showering. It's too hot, and you just have to do it again in a day or two, and it takes time away from being outside. But in the winter, a hot shower is emotionally therapeutic. It says to me, "You will be warm all the time again soon. If not forever, then for these few minutes, you can be warm." I know it's technically still fall, but around here, fall lasts about a month, and it's pretty much winter here now.

Anyway. More later. I'm going to grab my shampoo and run over to my inlaws' house.

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The thing in the drain