adventures in plumbing

What an adventure I've had this morning and it's only 9:00 a.m. No one in L.A. is even up by now, except me and the boys at Home Depot.

So last night my toilet clogs for the first time in my use of it. Nothing gross, it's just not sucking all the water and toilet paper down. But what can I do? I hope it will go away on its own, but subsequent pees proved unsuccessful. So this morning I'm becoming frantic. I don't think there's a plunger in my unit, and then there's the whole thing about how I've never successfully plunged a toilet before in my life (lack of arm strength or something). My landlord, above, I didn't hear stir and then once I did he left before I could catch him (actually, landlord is out of town, this is his partner). So I decide that I'm going to Vons. It's the only thing that would sell a plunger at 8:15. I get there, no plunger. There's an independent hardware store near me, but I'm convinced they wouldn't be open so I continue west on Sunset to Home Depot.

The parking lot was practically full at 8:30, all the hustle and bustle of contractors. I was lucky to get some people to tell me where to find the plunger. The Home Depot-working brother of Viggo Mortensen* was especially helpful.

I get home, first attempt doesn't work. Do I even know how to use a plunger? Plus, I'm now convinced the toilet hole is abnormally small. So I wait while the water goes down, and I'll try again. Stay tuned.


* Meaning that it wasn't Viggo or his brother probably, but there was some resemblance--yet he looked like he works at Home Depot, even without the orange apron.

** Isn't that image fantastic? It's from an ad I saw on LATimes.com during this whole ordeal.

*** I'm sorry, I thought this blog would be funnier.