oh oh... what is this??

What is this? Two rodents having sex?!

That's what I was thinking as I cleaned the shower drain.

The shower has always been very slow to drain...from the first day I moved into my apartment. Its an older apartment and was built by someone who didn't do a very good job as evidenced by the slooping door frames and odd cabinets. But its cheap.

I had tried the liquid plumber route and it worked a little, but the results only lasted a couple of showers. It was taking several hours for the water to complete drain. And that makes it very difficult to clean.

I didn't have any money for more liquid plumber and I was getting frustrated. Finally I reached for the BIG GUN... my "plumber's friend"... my plunger. This particular plunger has been with me for decades. Its part of the family. Its the cream of the crop... and it always gets its blockage. If it doesn't, it means the whole plumbing system needs to be replace. (start big sounding drums in forboding rhythm) I went beserk in a plunging frenzy....and baby was sucking it dry...shlup, shlup, shlup.

One of the keys to getting the plunger to work is to do it twenty times. I plunged...one, two, three.....twenty. Nothing. I went after it again....one, two, three....twenty. Suction, I had suction! It took some muscle to finally break the vacuum seal. I love when that happens, the vacuum seal part... but when it gave it up out came rusty yucky water. Oh please let it just be rusty water. I could see a little hair sticking out of the drain. Oh crap....the water was still a little slow to drain. I was stuck with a rusty, crusty shower. How many times can I use the term YUCK.

Once the water was gone I put on the rubber gloves and grab a couple of thick paper towels. I wanted all the protection I could get cause I was going in for the hair. I said a quick prayer and reached for it.

It didn't want to come out. I had to pull and pull hard before a big ball of hair finally burst out. I almost dropped it think it was a rat or something. Oh please don't let it be a dead rodent!! (Prayers come in many fashions. ) And thank God it wasn't. Just a huge hairball.

After I dumped the hairball I went back and pulled on the remaining hair.... another huge clump of hair. My gawd, no wonder so many men are bald...their hair was all in my shower!

I turned on the water to check things out... was it as successful as I hoped? Yessssss...it was wonderful. I let the water run for quite a while and it all went right down the drain, similar to what happens to my money.

There's nothing like winning the war of the drains... me and my plumber's friend forever. And there's nothing like a good draining shower, either.

This is the best I could come up with... after all, this is the Crone's Corner.