The floor drain, which is now under the washing machine, started spewing water again today. So, I rushed down to ACE and bought a large jug of Plumber’s Helper Gel hoping that would cure the problem. I had to let the maching finish draining so I could tip it sideways, about 45 degrees, to access the drain, and successfully (hey! That’s a cool word … it has 3 doubles in it … Hey! Bookkeeping does, too! … I wonder why I haven’t noticed that before? … I probably did and just forgot) dumped in the larger portion of the container. After letting it set for the requisite 15 minutes, I cranked up the washer, which I filled with towels, the only thing I’m allowed to wash without supervision, and watched it through the first drain cycle. Have any of you ever watched a washing machine do that? That’s bout the most boring thing I’ve ever done in my life.

Anyway, the first dose seemed to have done the job so I let the towels finish while I went to my shop to look for stuff. I’m always looking for stuff in my shop. Most of the time I know what I’m looking for but rarely find it and other times I just look around to see what’s there. I do that with the intent of putting things away, but random items cach my attention that takes me down a whole different road. Like the clutch alignment tool I bought for the 1992 Honda we had and that I haven’t used in 15 years. It triggers all kinds of memories about when I did use it, however. That was back when I could lift a Honda transmission all by myself. Maybe I still can.

Turns out the first fix on the floor drain didn’t work so the subsequent 3 rinse cycles sloshed all over the floor. The drain eventually accepted the water, but it wasn’t fast enough to keep up with the washer’s pump. There’s a toilet nexgt to the dryer which I flushed to get a sense of where the plug night be. Diane wanted me to install the toilet so she could use it and still continue to fold clothes. Pretty handy. Flushing the toilet just made it worse so I knew the plug was a little further down the line. It was clean water, by the way.

I started moving things out of the laundry room then and discovered a bottle of super duty drain cleaner, that had lots of sulfuric acid in it, behind the rollaround hamper. Nice. I didin’t have to go back to ACE, though I wouldn’t have minded.

I tipped the washer on it’s side so I could get to the drain, and poured about half a gallon in there and waited the required 15 minutes. It was actually more like an hour because Diane made me eat lunch. I went back down and ran the washer and it overflowed again, but it took longer. This time, however, it was accompanied by the acid smell with I’m sure eats the inside of your lungs if you breath it for very long. So, that prompted me to fix the laundry room vent fan which has been broken for about 2 years. Maybe longer. I’m not sure.

That turned out to be a pretty complex problem because it required me to remove the entire unit. Before I could do that, however, I had to dismantle the exhaust pipe that the previous owner had made out of six inch PVC. Lots of 90 degree angles, but they weren’t glued. Still, it was tricky. And it was packed with lint.

Just after I got the necessary screws loosened, and just before I took hold of it, it dismantled itself the rest of the way and fell on the washing machine taking a really nice chunk of porcelain with it. I ran and told Diane right away so she wouldn’t see it before I told her. It’s been a number of hours, now, and I’m still not clear on what the punishment will be. Guess it’s going to be a surprise.

I took everything back to my shop and determined that the fan motor was fried, literally. No doubt that was because it couldn’t vent because the dryer is also connect to the maze of PVC pipes and blows a little harder than the vent fan.

It was determined, by mutual agreement, that I must return to ACE to seek a replacement vent fan with a light. ACE had them but they were, like, $80! Instead, I bought a replacement motor not knowing if it would, or would not, fit the old fan husk I had. This task allowed me to learn a new skill that I didn’t know I could do. Tin bending, or sheet metal work. Before doing all that, however, I dumped the remainder of the sulfuric acid down the washing machine drain, and waited 15 minutes, and guess what! It bubbled up, again, and smelled even worse than the last time. So, in frustration, I flushed the toilet because it just couldn’t get much worse. Oddly, when I did that, and the toilet filled to almost overflowing, there was a very satisfying swooshing sound, and everything got sucked down the drain. And the toilet drained. I flushed it a couple more times just for fun, and it worked just great.

Back to the vent fan I went and got it all put back together with the new motor in the old shell. It worked great. Didn’t blow as hard as I wished, but it worked which was way better than when it didn’t.

Reconstructing it didn’t take as long as I thought it would and I finished just in time to go get Lydia from softball practice. It was 8:00 pm, and we needed to pick her up by 8:30. So, I just wandered down to the field and waited for her to finish. While there I learned that they may play a scrimmage game on Thursday. And, Jennie, Lydia needs to be at Boise Field by 6:00 pm Wednesday to get her Jersey and for sliding practice. So, no shorts Wednesday. Also, whoever doesn’t slide, doesn’t play. No jewelry, either.

So, today was pretty exciting for me because I actually got three things done. No, four! I also cut a piece of wood to size to fill the hole in the RV where the old TV used to be. I’ve got a swivel mount for Diane’s flat screen that I’m going to mount on the piece of wood. Tomorrow, after I go golfing with Doug. He called at one point while I was recovering from an overdose of sulfuric acid fumes.

All in all, it was a successful day. I got a lot done, and didn’t cut myself even once even though I was working with really sharp metal. I’m sure, however, that I’m going to contract some horrible affliction, probably terminal, due to the amount of acid I inhaled.