UNSTOPPING A TOILET: NEW TRICK

I was sleeping so hard this morning that when the phone rang I sat bolt upright, threw back the blankets, scattering my book, glasses, pencil, and a couple of hair curlers to the floor, and lunged. I must have sounded punch drunk when I answered.

"Sorry to call you so early," my tenant said. (Early? I'd just overslept by an hour and a half! My poor doggie would be dieing of an overstretched bladder by now.) "My toilet is stopped up, and I've plunged it and plunged it, and I just can't get it."

"No worries. I'll get it taken care of."

She said she'd be leaving for the dentist in half an hour, and to just walk in, so after a cup of coffee, or two, I trudged to the back house, plunger in hand.

There are tricks to unstopping a toilet.

• Wear gloves. That's number one for me.


• Use a plunger that actually fits the hole at the bottom of the toilet bowl. I had one, Connie had two, and I still ended up borrowing one from another tenant, which did the trick.


• Put the plunger down in, and try to get a good seal going, then use multiple little shoves down-down-down-down and UP! Pull the plunger out of the hole quickly, which should do the trick. You might have to do that more than once.


• Test it, to see. Don't flush the toilet! What if you didn't get it unstopped? (I have been there, done that, and bought the t-shirt.) You can lift the top off the tank, and pull up a little on the lever that lets water flow. That will show you. Or pour some water into the bowl. If the level goes down, you got it.

Well, I did all those things, several times, and no luck.

Here's where the new trick comes in, one that Mister Bruce came up with. Maybe plumbers do this, but I'd never heard of it. Get the dish soap, and pour several ounces into the toilet bowl. It does two things: First, it helps you get a tighter seal between the plunger and the bowl, and second, it lubricates whatever is causing the stoppage.

Presto! No more stopped toilet!

Goodness. It's nearly eleven. I've unstopped that toilet, talked to DH on the phone twice, glued a couple of Mega Blossoms and a Tea Kettle Character, and started to unload the van from Saturday's show.

But I forgot to eat breakfast. Maybe I'll do that next.