It is a blessing to have a family that you love and enjoy. It is an even greater blessing when they visit. However, in the words of Benjamin Franklin, "Fish and friends (Family for this instance) smell after three days!"

When we moved form NC to Savannah GA, we thought we would rarely ever see our family members. We were the ones who would normally travel to see them. Our visits occured once a month or so.

We moved to Savannah a little under a year ago. In that time, our families have visited us every month. We have not gone to them! They have come here. Who knew?

Three weeks ago, MRs. CXXC's brother and two friends came to visit. They enjoyed the sights, sounds, flavors and bars in our little town. Her brother even made breakfast for us each morning as a "thank you" for his free vacation spot and drinks/food. Mrs. CXXC loved having breakfast made for her each morning.

Well, I am not a breakfast person. Just a pot of coffee to start the day and I am good! But, not having to cook for Mrs. CXXC in the morning is a treat, UNTIL the drain became clogged. Yes, the morning the visitors left, I noticed the water standing in the sink. Naturally, it is a double sink. The side that was clogged didn’t have the garbage disposal installed in it.

What sink did my loving brother-in-law decide to scrape the dishes and pots/pans into each day? Yep. The one without the garbage disposal. Where were all the potato peelings and bacon grease dumped? Down the drain without the garbage disposal. For three wonderful days, my drain pipe was being plugged by bacon grease and potato peels along with various food scraps form the plates he would happily rinse and place in the dish washer.

The afternoon of his departure marked the time that his culinary prowess proved too much for my 1956 plumbing. It was time to get the plunger. Anyone with a garbage disposal knows that plungers do absolutely nothing but push the water into the sink with the garbage disposal. Well, that would be anyone but me as I didn’t realize this until I had worked the sink over for a good 30 minutes. With no assistant handy, I even made an attempt to work both sinks (Two plungers at a time) at the same time. This only made a mess as the water splashed up and all over me, the counter, and floor.

OFF TO HOME DEPOT!!! A plumbers auger (Snake to those in the know) should do the trick nicely. By the way, you will find these items, NOT in the blumbing section, but in kitchens and bath sections. There were several to choose from. I made a purchase of the mid line, manual crank, 25 foot snake. I figured, 25 feet would be more than enough. Just to keep in line with my other DIY (Do-It-Yourself) projects, I stopped in the tool area and picked up another spade bit. You can’t have enough of them. On to the clog!

I will not bore the reader with the complete story and the number of times I disassembled and reassembled the trap and associated pipes leading to the wall to enable me to snake the pipe. Lets us just say, for arguments sake, I can tear that drainage system under my kitchen sink down in under two minutes and still have time for a beer.

SNAKE, SNAKE, SNAKE……CRANK, CRANK, CRANK……snake…crank…etc…. all 25 feet had been fished into the drain no less than 4 times. Each time, I removed the snake, reassembled the pipes and tried the drain by filling the sink with water. Each time I filled the sink, expecting the water to simply follow gravity, it would just sit there laughing at me.

Bail out the sink, disassemble the trap and associated pipes, snake, crank, remove, reassemble the pipes and trap, fill with water and there it would sit. SIGH! The snake was not long enough to reach the clog.

I needed a longer snake. Back to home depot! They had no hand held units longer than 25 feet. They did, however rent the 50 and 100 foot snakes. These are powered by an electric motor and rotate the snake with the press of a foot pedal. All the user has to do is pay out the snake by hand and let the motor do the difficult rotating. WONDERFUL! $50.00 later, I am back home.

Disassemble and snake, been there, done that, got the nasty jeans and t-shirt to prove it. I pay out all of the snake again but this time, somehting is wrong. Mrs. CXXC walked into the kitchen to observe my activities. As I had just finished feeding the entire length of the 50 foot auger cable into the drain pipe, she looks out the window and asks, “What is that cable hanging from the roof infront of the window?”

AAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!

The entire auger cable had gone down the drain but took a sharp turn NORTH into the vent pipe and was paid out fully on the grass of my back yard. The 25 foot section I had attempted to use probably followed the same route.

My blood ran backward. My heart skipped a beat and if I ever had high blood pressure, this was the day! I tried to pull the snake back through but the weight of the cable against the vent pipe on the roof would not allow me to pull it back in the slightest!

Grumbling, I went to the tool shed (Just recently moved across my yard to its new position) pulled out the ladder and the extension cords. Climbed the roof, fed the snake back down the pipe (It went back easily as gravity helped). Got off the roof, went to the kitchen to discover the MESS the snake had made on the floor, cabinets, counters and even one kitchen chair. I would clean that up later.

So there I was, on top of the roof, precariously perched at an angle while feeding the snake downt he vent and trying to hold the machine in place while pressing the foot pedal with my knee. One wrong move and I would have crashed, auger and all, to the grass of my back yard.

Ya know, that went much faster than I had expected. Even pulling the snake back out and storing it into the machine was not such a difficult procedure. The hardest part of the entire process was getting the damn machine up and then off the roof! Having done that, I went back to the sludge sprayed kitchen (Damn 50 of snake just made a mess when I had pushed it back through the last time) REASSEMBLED the trap and associated pipes, turned on the water and to my amazement and happiness, the water was happily circling the drain!

So what did I learn from tis experience? DON'T let the in-laws cook! Do my own dishes and Plumber's Augers defy the laws of gravity by moving UP, not down and into the clog!