Up Here in Bathysphere (or wherever it is)

#126

OMG ol' Wifehorn is the most annoying person on this planet.

My dad has a toilet that doesn't work so well, and a plunger that requires an NFL lineman to use, it's stiff as hell.

So:

1. I go tell ol' YouKnowWho, "The next time anyone flushes the toilet, it is going to flood the bathroom. Let me get dressed and take my daily pain pills and get some covfefe in me, because I can't use the plunger yet. I don't have the strength." I think that was fairly clear. But just for safety's sake,

2. I left the plunger in the toilet, as a visual reminder that the next time anyone flushed the toilet, it was going to flood the bathroom.

OK, guys, so what did she do?

C'mon, some of you are married.

Of course she did. She pulled out the plunger and flushed the toilet "to see if it was fixed". And, amazingly enough, right away the bathroom started flooding and suddenly she's screaming at me to come turn off the water.

She turned a plugged toilet into a

emergency. As one does.

And of course by now I suddenly have enough energy to use the damned plunger, so I use it to fix the problem. But she's on her own with the filthy water all over the bathroom floor. I mean, I didn't have a flashing neon sign 12 feet high that says DON'T FLUSH THE TOILET. But I did everything I could.

Besides, you think a flashing neon sign would slow her down?

#127

Okay, so my staff informs me that my dad is now awake, but he's either eating breakfast or dealing with a lot of rigamarole involved with getting him officially released from rehab. He and his straw man, you know the straw man is involved whenever there's paperwork. I'm pretty sure both are being sprung.

We figure we'll go down and see what kind of progress they're making in a half hour or so, but we don't expect him to be released until about noon.

We have cleaned up the apartment some. Changed the sheets on his bed. Stocked the fridge. Opened up a lot of boxes that got delivered. Done a lot of laundry.

He's been gone from his home for two months, and he needs to get re-accustomed to living here.

And he needs to be independent without us, or he can't live here anymore.

So we have three days to get him there. We have to leave on Friday morning early.

Today is gonna be a bizzy day.

Edit: I'm wearing a long sleeve bright red t-shirt today, but I will change it if I end up walking on the surface of the planet. I know better than to beam down with a red shirt on, are you kidding me?

#128

Honest to goodness, a new toilet bowl plunger costs about $20 and is NOT stiff and difficult to use. A good investment!

: Toilet bowl plunger.jpg (7.5 KiB) Viewed 1145 times

#129

You are right, of course, and I will add it to the list of things to get in Raleigh. They sell them here, of course, but at an inflated price (this is a high-income area with prices to match). But more importantly, it would mean a separate trip to the hardware store and an hour or so on an errand that can't include my dad. It would cut into my time with him.

And, as shown on Tee Vee, the honest truth is that while it is indeed very stiff and difficult to use, I can, and did, after being appropriately dressed and with my caffeine/blood saturation at an acceptable level, horse that thing into compliance, using all my weight and muscle strength. It's like Suranis's brother-in-law and his stupid rocks. I call them stupid because I couldn't lift any of them. But I can use a stiff plunger, and that's my feat of manhood.

I did it this morning. I won.

I used the super stiff plunger and bent it to my will. It just needed a little discipline, and I gave it the appropriate degree of discipline. Take that, ya punk.

And I didn't make a big deal of it with ol' Wifehorn, either, except for the immediate moment when I was hearing some yelling and getting down on the floor to turn off the water valve.

She is who she is. Her good points totally outclass any annoying little things like never listening to her husband even once in a million years.

#130

My wife at times pays me no mind, so I am used to it. I don't think it is personal.

On those rare occasions that I think that it is very important for my wife to do something or not to do something, I try to think of a fool-proof way to keep things from unraveling.

In your particular case, Foggy, I would have ditched the plunger. I would have closed the toilet lid. I would have put some masking or other tape at the edges to make it difficult to raise the lid for use. And then I might have put a sticky on the tank lid advising against use until the plumbing department showed up after being fortified with confeve and spinach.

Maybe you didn't have those options at your dad's place, so maybe keeping the plunger in the bowl was the bestest you could do.

I understand that a plunger placed upside down in a toilet is a sign of distress.

#131

I’d have put a water snake in the bowl.

#132

Im not sure I'm grasping the WHOLE underlying plumbing problem here.

Is this plumbing issue not occuring in a building that is, what we call in Australia, a Retirement Community? And doesnt this community have admin staff, and maintenance staff, and in particular plumbing staff/on call contractors?

IMHO, Thats who should be doing the turd burgling, not you.
And especially not your dad freshly out of rehab and on his own 3
days after you've gone home to have your arms amputated or whatever.

#133

Yeah, well you gotta admit, life is more exciting when ol' Wifehorn is around.

I mean, you could call it a simple miscommunication.

I said, "The next time anyone flushes the toilet, it's going to flood the bathroom."

But she heard me say "The next time anyone flushes the toilet, it's going to flood the bathroom, but if you decide it might possibly have miraculously managed to fix itself before I have a chance to do anything, then there's only one way to test that, so you should probably just go right ahead and flush it anyway."

So, umm ... yeah. Miscommunication, see?

#134

Foggy wrote: ↑Tue Mar 07, 2023 2:17 pm You are right, of course, and I will add it to the list of things to get in Raleigh. They sell them here, of course, but at an inflated price (this is a high-income area with prices to match). But more importantly, it would mean a separate trip to the hardware store and an hour or so on an errand that can't include my dad. It would cut into my time with him.

Wifehorn flooded the bathroom. Send her to the hardware store with a picture of what to buy.

#135

She knows what a plunger is, and she had no objection to cleaning up the little flood. When it happened, I was less than 20 feet away in a guest bedroom, so I got it under control in a short time.

I'm going to start the Virtual Meetup but then spend the rest of the evening with her and my dad. He's so happy to be back in his home for the first time in seven weeks. It's pretty awesome to be part of it.

#136

Okay, he's got an aide here helping him get moving for the day, and the big project today is a trip to the PX (military version of Target, low prices and OK merch) on the base of Walter Reed. Why?

Why, to buy wine. Amazon will deliver all his groceries, but they won't bring a man a decent bottle of wine.

I already searched the hardware part of the PX less than a year ago. No plungers.

#137

So is there a hardware store on the way in which you could run into while your father waits in the car with your wife?

#138

Building maintenance should handle plunging and snaking.

#139

Yeah, no.

I am strong enough to plunge using the existing plunger.
I am silly enough to think it's a macho thing - which is silly, but at least I admit it.

And it takes time to call for help from building maintenance, and I hate doing that anyway.

I never wanted to let anyone carry my bags in a hotel, not even a really fancy hotel. I don't have two broken arms and two broken legs, I can carry my own stuff like a manly man.

I never paid anyone to mow my lawn (except my boys). I can mow a lawn, trim a hedge, prune a tree, rake, hoe, dig, chop, whatever. I might pay someone to do that stuff when I'm 95. Until then, get outta my way, 'cuz I like to do stuff myself.

We had a real flood up here once, and I did have to call maintenance, so I know how.

But it's against my religion to rely on others to do anything I can do without help.

I'm not gonna claim to be fully rational ...

Edit: When we're back in Rawly, I will pick up a new plunger and bring it back here next time we visit. But otherwise, I don't plan to need it again this trip! (fingers crossed)

#140

And here's the thing about letting other people do stuff for you:

My dad got covid-19 in January, as y'all remember. He was hospitalized for just a few days, I think 5 days. At the end of that time, IN THE FREAKING HOSPITAL, he lost all his muscle strength and couldn't transfer from a wheelchair into bed. He couldn't use the walker at all. Yesterday he did 100 yards total with the walker.

But five days in the hospital destroyed him, and it took six weeks of therapy to get him back into his apartment.

No wonder he initially refused to go to the hospital. He said it would take two months out of his life, and he was dead accurate.

So the older we get, the more we have to keep moving. And not letting other people use the damned plunger.

Lesson learned.

#141

I have sworn to purchase a new plunger, but wait, we left Bathysphere and came back ...

#142

Foggy wrote: ↑Wed Mar 08, 2023 12:34 pm Yeah, no.

I am strong enough to plunge using the existing plunger.
I am silly enough to think it's a macho thing - which is silly, but at least I admit it.
s

YEAHBUT!

Our point is that maybe your Dad isn't. And you aren't there all the time.

And maybe, just maybe, there is something wrong that is causing the toilet to block up that building maintenance could ID and FIX.

I haven't needed a plunger in years, and don't own one. It isn't something you, or especially your Dad, should have to put up with.

Disclaimer: I have used a plunger at the Croquet Club, because the next door neighbour's trees invaded our sewer line. But I got the landlord (City council), to deal with it. That is I got some one who could fix the problem to fix the problem instead of making old ladies mop up faces every week.

#143

keith wrote: ↑Sat Mar 11, 2023 5:31 am
Foggy wrote: ↑Wed Mar 08, 2023 12:34 pm Yeah, no.

I am strong enough to plunge using the existing plunger.
I am silly enough to think it's a macho thing - which is silly, but at least I admit it.
s
YEAHBUT!

Our point is that maybe your Dad isn't. And you aren't there all the time.

And maybe, just maybe, there is something wrong that is causing the toilet to block up that building maintenance could ID and FIX.

Landlord Neon only needed plumber assistance twice with toilet/commode issues. Once it turned out to be an action figure doll her 4-year old somehow flushed down there. Kids. The other time was when the main waste line of condo building was backed-up. Upon plumber inspection, one of the residents was flushing feminine hygiene pads down the toilet. (they are marked as do not flush-- they do not break up).

Yeah, operator error both times.

#144

This is turning into an exciting threadjack.

1. My dad uses a different toilet, the one in his bedroom. It doesn't have the problem. He has aides to help him, and yes, if I'm not there he knows what to do. Ol' Wifehorn said in the car on the way home, "He's so amazingly sharp, still." He is. He would call building maintenance. I wouldn't, but he would.

2. Ol' Wifehorn and I use the guest toilet, which worked okay the rest of the week after Tuesday.

3. The truth is, my dad doesn't even know we had an incident with the toilet. He was down in the rehab when it happened. It wasn't a major problem, I was right there when it started to flood and I turned off the valve immediately, and very little water was on the floor, and ol' Wifehorn cleaned it up because she caused it. So why would we tell my dad?

He had more important things to think about, you betcha.

The only reason I wrote about it in the first place was because I couldn't have warned ol' Wifehorn any more explicitly, but she did what she does, and it doesn't involve stupid stuff like listening to her husband.

#145

Anyway, up there in Bathysphere or wherever it is, he's on his own again, which is a little precarious. He has aides, but my two sisters aren't spending a lot of time with him (their loss imho). He has to find a way to stay independent and stay in his apartment, or his life is going to change for the worse.

A lot worse.

He's got a plan, and he is damned determined to follow the plan, but one little misstep, one slip and fall, one infection, one anything, and he'll be back in the hospital on Square One.

Precarious.

We gotta keep coaching him, too. If we can buy him an extra few months in his apartment, running his own life, that's the best I can do.

#146

A conversation we had ...

Dad: Grump!

Ol' Wifehorn: What's up?

Dad: I'm really frustrated.

Ol' Wifehorn: What's going on?

Dad: It's 3 in the afternoon and I haven't accomplished a darned thing today. I'm getting too old!

Me: Umm ... you're 95 years old, Pop. You can take a day off now.

Ol' Wifehorn: Besides, spending an hour and a half working on fixing your TIVO isn't exactly doing nothing.

He has two TIVO boxes and his account lapsed because he was gone from his apartment for two months. He was working on making sure the wiring was right and on the phone with TIVO straightening it out, and he's competent.

But he didn't get enough done that day. Which is typical of my dad.

And when we opened the boxes that had been delivered in his absence, there was his new computer, a Mac Mini to replace his old Mac Mini.

So he has plenty to do today, n'est ce pas?

#147

I love these stories about Admiral Dadhorn! You can tell him he is the star of a reality show.

#148

My dad is being sent home Monday, well, to the rehab at his retirement community. He has congestive heart failure and there's nothing more they can do that isn't unacceptably invasive, like catheterization or cardiac scraping, which he won't do.

He has fooled us before and I hope he will fool us again, but it's not looking good.

If he bounces back in rehab, good. But otherwise he's at peace.

#149

#150