Down the Drain

Fatherhood Friday

Having grown up in a home where (a) my mother cooked dinner every night and (b) we didn't have a disposal, I would discard my dinner scraps in the garbage. Not so my wife, she grew up putting EVERYTHING in the disposal. 

Over the course of our relationship, I've learned what a wonderful tool a disposal can be, and even use it every once in a while. Nonetheless, it has been a minor source of tension between us. I will put my scraps in the garbage still, but rinse off the little bits in the sink. My wife will put EVERYTHING in the sink/disposal.

Our conversations tend to go something like - Me:"Think you should put those banana peels, chicken bones and old sneakers in there all at once?" Her: "Its okay, I do it all the time and we've never had a problem."

Last weekend's conversation was a little different - Her:"Uh-oh." Me:"What happened?" Her: (Sound of grinding metal and gurgling water in the background) "Nothing. I'm sure it will work itself out." 

Turns out that we had overcooked our asparagus that night and the wife discarded them in the disposal. All 24 pieces. At once. Seeing as I can barely tell a wrench apart from pliers and her grandfather was a plumber years ago, we thought we were well-qualified to solve the situation. But when turning the disposal on and off a few times still didn't do the trick we realized we had exhausted our skills.

Fortunately, when we moved into our house about eight months ago my wife remembered one of the neighbors mentioning that he likes to fix stuff around the house. So we gave him a call on Saturday afternoon and he cheerfully came right on over. 

This guy was great. He took apart the disposal. He took apart the plumbing under the sink. He had lots of tools. None of it worked. No matter what we did (okay, no matter what he did) we couldn't unclog that sink. He had a couple hours of grime on him to show for it, too.

Just when we were about to throw in the towel and shell out some bucks for a plumber he got one last idea. He took out a wrench that was bigger than my two year old son, went into the basement and found a really big pipe that the kitchen sink goes to. He started using that wrench on it and next thing we knew, out came a ton of dirty water and sludge (but no asparagus). All over him.

Rather than get upset about it, he was probably happier than I was that he had figured it out! My wife was happy, because he concluded (I'm still not sure how) that the issue probably wasn't the asparagus and was more likely just years of build-up.

Whatever the cause, I'm glad to report that my wife has been much more judicious about putting orange peels, apple cores and the like down the drain. And we learned we have one awesome neighbor.

 (Photo credit: www.knoxvilleplumbinginc.com/wp-content/uploads/food-in-disposal.jpg)

Comments

[Ed]

My wife sticks everything down he disposal too. Coincidence? Perhaps my wife knows your wife....

[Robin]

Great story. Now, may I be the wet blanket here and suggest that you consider composting your (easily biodegradable) food waste?