Scene from the plumbing front

After four straight days of the recommended two weeks of drain fly treatment, Gary broke down and called a plumber. Oddly, he talked at length about every other plumbing issue we have instead of the drain flies. Before the end of the call he handed me the phone and solicited plumbing requests from me.

All I could think of was the drain flies, but he was being coy about that, so I added:

• His toilet flushes “ca-chunk-ca-chunk” while mine just goes “ca-chunk.”
• The faucet I installed 30 years ago leaks under the cold handle. (I am a little smug about this, and also a little alarmed that at 33 I had the stones to think I could install a faucet.)
• The uppy-downy thingy on my faucet is so happy to go up and down that it has forgotten its real purpose. Communication has broken down between the stopper and the uppy-downy thing.

Then I handed him the phone and heard him say, “OH AND ALSO WE SEEM TO HAVE _{drain flies} SO WE PROBABLY NEED TO HAVE ALL THE DRAINS CLEANED OUT.”

So Wednesday I suspect the plumber will come and remove the trap under the sink and evict the drain flies, make some scrubbing motions, and then recommend we keep using the drain fly remover for two more weeks, then let them know the situation. That’s fine. It really is. I’ll get a bonus functioning uppy-downy thing out of the deal and that’s great.