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Learn Something New Every Day

I’ve been cleaning drains for fifteen wonderful years. You’d think that I would have learned how to do it by now. But today I developed a new technique.

I cabled a kitchen sink drain, removed my cable, and closed up the opening I’d used. I then ran the water to test the drain. It backed up; the clog wasn’t moving, even though I’d put a steel cable through its evil heart just minutes ago.

We have ways of dealing with such clogs. I continued to let the water run and fill up both sides of the kitchen sink. Then I waited, minute after minute, for the weight of the water to move the clog on down the line. This has worked for me on dozens of previous occasions. Today’s clog wasn’t impressed, however.

The next step, since the clog wouldn’t move, was going to be a lot of trouble. I decided to try something I’d never done before, since it was easy and might work. I grabbed my ladder off the top of my truck and climbed up to the roof over the kitchen, put my mouth against the drain’s vent pipe, and began blowing into it, letting off, and blowing again.

If you don’t know diddly about drains and vents, this might be Greek to you. But trust me: I was blowing pressure against the water that was standing in the drain. Lo and behold, after half a minute the clog gave way and the system drained with a mighty roar.

I’ve probably cleared 12,000 drains, but this was the first time I tried this maneuver. Truly a red letter day.

(And you thought your life was going nowhere?)

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