But I Have to Go-Go

Day 244

My power went out yesterday, along with a number of other people. I waited an hour and it didn't come back on, so I went to my brothers. We live about ten miles apart and it's seldom we both lose power at the same time.

I drove to his house to find the power was off there also. My brother was out, but my niece and her friends, who were visiting, were at the house. When I went in things were a little crazy. Seems the basement toilet was overflowing.

Let me explain something about the basement toilet. The basement was unfinished when they moved in and it was decided not to put a bathroom in the basement. Later the basement was finished and there was two bedrooms and a closet added.

My nephew and his wife and children use the basement whenever they come to Houghton Lake to visit. After several years of complaining about coming up the stairs at night to use the toilet, one was added to the basement.

The main waste line going out of the house is in the basement ceiling, so the toilet and sink water have to be pumped UP to the main drain piping. There is a special toilet for this purpose that uses an electric system to pump the waste water up to the main waste pipe.

The water supply is free flowing and if the electricity is off, the valve has to be shut to prevent the toilet from overflowing. That wasn't done right away hence the mess on the floor. They had just discovered this when I walked in. My niece was frantically searching for a bucket and a mop and explaining about the water in the basement.

I calmly sat down and asked if they had turned off the supply water valve. She said they had. I suggested they look in the garage for a bucket and not use the food bowls for collecting toilet water. Soon they went to work.

Suddenly there was a shriek and lots of muttering. My niece came back and told me the toilet was still overflowing. Just then my brother walked in and I explained the situation him. He asked did they shutoff the water. I answered in the affirmative. Another shriek from the basement. With a deep sigh he went down to see what the damage was, and why the toilet was still overflowing.

A few minutes later he returned from the basement and explained that they indeed had turned off the water supply as I had suggested. The problem was when the bucket was full from mopping up the water, they were emptying the bucket into the sink, which is tied into the same drain system. So the water was flowing from the sink into the waste tank (that wasn't being emptied) and then backing out of the toilet bowl.

I decided that was enough excitement for me for one day. I went home, checked my toilet, fired up my kindle reader and read until I fell asleep.

Until tomorrow,

Ken