For us USAians, that a a low of 104 and a high of 127. That is not survivable.
I’ve been doing carpentry outdoors all week, and whining up a storm about 90–95° temps with an index up to 110°. I just literally cannot even imagine.
(On a related note, why don’t we have those T-shirt dispensers from Idiocracy? I’m using at least five per day lately.)
Britain is fucked.
Didn’t Labour just get rid of Corbyn because he couldn’t win an election? Starmer coming in third in a two horse race doesn’t inspire confidence for the future.
Ugh… no, that’s not very confidence inspiring… I’m sorry…
Between that, the shitty response to BLM protests and the transphobia that is being protected within the party I’m regretting having joined Labour. I honestly feel that there is nothing I can do to fix this omnishambles, which was the main reason why I joined in the first place.
I think I know how Keith Mincher felt when he resigned as Carlisle United manager (head coach) a week after taking the job in 1999.
I feel you. I keep going back and forth about joining the democratic party here, and being more involved in party politics, but I feel the same way that you do about internal reform… But I also understand the uphill battle of third party politics (which have even less impact than in the UK).
But going out to vote in a run-off election here in a bit… at the very least, where I live is blue and my county is about to get bluer, so that’s something…
Football is a great metaphor for life! 
The last few days have bee occupied by the plumbing clog from hell, or rather the clog of the hellish plumbing. The kitchen sink, of course. Drano did nothing, both at the labelled usage, and the frustrated usage that everyone resorts to. Snaking it with an auger down the sink didn’t get very far. It hung up just after the p-trap. Plunging it would pull the water up, and then it would go down and then up a few times. Obviously the clog was after the vent pipe, and the water was sloshing up and down the vent. (Vent pipes let any sewer gases escape through a pipe to the roof, rather than bubbling up through the p-trap to the sink.) Insert various runs to Home Depot and Canadian Tire to get Drano, snake and a new plunger; long delays waiting for the water to drain before trying something else.
Okay, time to investigate the plumbing in the basement. This house was built during a province-wide contractor labour dispute, and shows it here and there.This is one of them.
The p-trap is in the basement ceiling (unfinished, fortunately). First off, they took the 90° curve from the u-bend to horizontal and turned it sideways to go through a beam, then another 90° to run parallel to the beam, a 4’ run to the t-join with the vent pipe, then two quick 90° turns to run back in a long section back past the p-trap to the main line.
There was no way that the auger was getting past from the sink, but there is a drain on the bottom of the p-trap. And pipes full of nasty drain clearer chemicals. So… a large carabiner (Home Depot) to hold a bucket right under the drain, safety glasses, rubber gloves and a plastic rain shell with hood. Freeing the plug with a channel lock, then turning slowly by hand. On the plus side, I didn’t drop the plug when it suddenly dropped out and released a full stream into the bucket, splashing me a bit. (Yay protective gear!)
I was able work the auger up the p-trap and past the first two 90° curves and along to the vent and the 180°. With a bit of work, I was able to work past that, to the full 15’ length of the auger. Since a previous experiment with boiling water showed that the pipe only warmed up to the 180°, that should have been well beyond the clog.
Feeling optimistic, I pulled out the auger, replaced the plug, ran water into the sink. Still plugged. A second attempt, being careful to turn the auger lots when it should be hitting the clog, same result.
I’m guessing, from the feel of things, that the clog is so solid that it’s ramping the auger tip up into the vent pipe.
So. The next plan is to cut the ABS pipe after where the clog should be and auger up its backside with no detours, possibly pushing it to the p-trap drain. Last Home Depot trip, I also picked up a couple pipe connectors and a cap, and I have the glue. (I’ll do it in the morning when Home Depot is open.)
I’ve thought of calling a plumber, but unless they have better tools and more experience (it’s possible 
), it’s going to come down to the same solution. Fuck!
They indeed do. Toolwise water jets are the thing. High pressure water that will cut through just about every thing that would clog a drain. Just do a youtube search for drain unclogging to see many examples.
My mom had a similar issue that turned out to be a plastic utensil that got stuck and wouldn’t dissolve in Drano.
My nemesis years ago ended up being roots in the pipe.
Worked great. Then treated every spring to prevent recurrence.
We had a situation like that a while back. Luckily our neighbor is a plumber, and we frequently trade services. He came over and brought his power auger. Took off the toilet and ran down through there, finally found the clog out in the back yard near the junction with the main line. Plumbing is like black magic to me.
The roots that the guy from Drain Addict pulls out occasionally are like how did this not completely clog up months ago.
Yes I have developed a small addiction to drain unclogging videos.
Years ago, my neighbor’s tree across the street from my old house took out my sewage line. The exploratory digging and replacement was probably the worst/most expensive plumbing problem I’ve ever had. Anytime the drains seemed a bit slow I used boiling water and bleach, while hoping the tree roots weren’t the source of the problem again.
Wait. From across the street?! What kind of tree was it?
A poplar, IIRC. It was so tall, it probably would’ve reached my house if it fell down in that direction, and every lot on the block had a pretty large setback from the curb. The back property lines were one-third of the distance to the foundation, while the front lines were two-thirds.
The sycamores across the street from me do the same thing. Yearly rooterings until the pipes crack, then up comes the street. I’m not looking forward to it.
It turns out nearly any tree of sufficient age will send roots across the street. This surprised me, there not really being any water until it gets to the pipes. In my case, the trees are more than 60 years old. Possibly nearly 100.
We considered a sycamore for a backyard shade tree until I did some research. No way. We went with a Mexican white oak/Monterrey Oak. It has pretty peach growth in spring l. We have a lot of sycamores in the neighborhood, a few near houses. The rest closer to the pond.
Visited a new townhouse development a bit back. They planted sycamores less than 5 feet from some of the buildings! I warned my friends they needed to take that up with the HOA stat.
The clogs are cleared! When I cut the pipe, my first thought at seeing the inside was to back off and throw a fire bomb. Ugh, the pipe was fully jammed with spongey grey/white gunk, like plumbing wasps had built a nest in there. Second thought was to go get the larger toilet auger, which has a better crank. In the end, the ShopVac did the job. (I could tell when the downstream clog cleared, there was a definite change in atmosphere.)
Now I just have to drain it one last time, and glue the connection. Cleaning the ShopVac, I leave as an exercise to… me. shit.
