Letters to Holly

Tuesday, October 26

Sink Surgeon

I am the Hawkeye Pierce of sink repair.

I smooched the wife and petted the boy and went straight to the bathroom to show the sink who's boss. In return, it showed me a downright foul sleeve of goop that coated the drain. Monstrous. Inhuman. I dragged the whole thing out in one piece, a faded mix of toothpaste, hair, and failed drain-cleaning product.

I saw the plug control rod was rotted and rusted to the point it couldn't move the plug anymore. It has a ball seal to block the pipe where it connects to the drain. That ball plug had to be moved back along the rod, thus allowing a decent length to move the plug.

It looks like this:

The ball seals is right at the red dot on the above pivot rod location. I used pliers and a vice to twist the ball back along the rod and reassembled the lever contraption. The sink works just fine now.

I looked at Your Sister's and discovered that her lever plug has a ball seal with a plastic rod to move the plug. That rod broke, and I'll need to get a sturdier rod/ball combination to move her drain plug. I'll stop by a hardware store today to find one, and I might be able to fix her sink too. That's gotta improve our property value by at least $5.

The boy is intentionally reaching for objects now, and he is much more verbal.

Picture of the Day
This weekend saw the annual Wonder Woman Day held in Oregon and New Jersey. Auctions for art such as this raise money for abused women.

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