appreciating something when you lost it - the toilet bowl story
march 3, 2007 (saturday)
i’m outta bed earlier than usual. on days like these, i used to fix my room, the kitchen, the sink, the bathroom and the toilet and then transfer the garbage from the bins to the designated plastic bags and then put them at their designated places outside our pad. i did just that. in no particular order.
i gotta meet girl friends at 2pm so i had lotsa time.
i was happily cleaning the house. i felt it’s a beautiful saturday morning. and it was. until i cleaned the toilet. and the story begins here.
i was using male and female toilet bowl brush (i.e. the handle is the male, the brush itself is the female. the two are not completely attached to each other.) i poured in toilet cleaner and pushed and pulled the brush against the bowl. then, the female part (brush itself) separated from the handle. i kept pushing the handle to find the hole of the brush that fits the handle itself. i couldn’t so much see the brush for it’s color is white and so is the water because of the toilet cleaner i poured in. oh well, to cut it short, i pushed a little too hard that i couldn’t anymore see the brush. so, i flushed water. clean. it’s clean. the brush is invisible. i flushed again. no problem. i will just have to buy another brush. that’s cheap anyway.
i proceeded to cleaning the bathroom, smashing water under the bath tub. it’s kinda hard cleaning that portion. i had to smash water because the shower won’t work as i wanted. dear housemate then woke up and used the toilet. flushing and flushing, she wondered and asked me why the tissue paper remained. oh! the brush was stuck after all! we kept flushing and yet the tissue paper remained, and the water raised as high as the height of the bowl itself. “goodness! this is a disaster!” i thought.
and so, i thought of ways. i googled on the internet to find ways. taking the object out is the easiest solution but only if i could see the object. in my case, i couldn’t see the brush anymore so, it’s kinda hard. sure thing is, the brush is still there, causing the clog. there were lots of suggestions on the net and finally a professional help was to be sought as final course of action and that left me with that choice. only that choice.
and since it’s a saturday, the professionals for that were not on duty. so, for a while, i shifted my attention and left the pad for the girl-bonding session. while with friends, i wasn’t at ease. i kept calling people who might have suggestions but to no avail. it’s just so hard when the brush isn’t visible anymore. i can’t pull anything. i was thinking i should be looking for a liquid that might melt the brush instead of pulling it. weird me! perhaps because, i figured it will be wiser than seeking a professional help because it will cost me much. and i mean, MUCH! (because, i have learned from friends that unclogging a bathroom costs 40,000yen based on personal experience.)
7 pm, the gang i was with was heading for a birthday party. while i wanted to go too, i was caught between going and having fun and going back and facing my problem again. so, i headed home and contemplated for ways. with the gloves on, i picked every solid thing i could find in the toilet bowl and reached as far as i could. nothing. i couldn’t grab nor feel the brush. and then i kept flushing and flushing hoping the brush would just get flushed. but it only filled the bowl with water. “goodness! this isn’ t gonna work!” i dread thinking about the time when we would need to use the toilet for moving bowels. that’s gonna be real bad. scary! we can’t knock the next door and asked if we could use the toilet. sure, not! and there are no stores nearby with public toilets. huh! komatta na. hontou ni.
i ended the day up by throwing all the garbage and then taking a shower. that’s it. i called it a day. tomorrow, i will just use the church’s toilet and hope dear housemate could still bear with the inconvenience.
march 4, 2007 (sunday)
first thing in the morning - flush the toilet to see if anything good happened. was i expecting for a miracle? PERHAPS! as expected, it only filled the bowl with water. so, i fixed myself for church and then left. i kept narrating my problem to friends hoping i would get the solution i needed, perhaps they know of an acid that melts plastics. i left the church after lunch and then opted to go to a shop to seek the acid i desperately want to have.
after consuming all my japanese words the clerk finally understood what i wanted to have. “there’s none of it around. you had better inform the incharge of your apartment”. yappari. so, i took the rubber thing for unclogging toilets and bathrooms and a toilet brush to replace the one taken by the bowl. this time, i chose a stand-alone one (not the male-female thing).
i went back to the pad and then use the rubber thing to unclog the bowl. i kept pushing that thing and kept flushing and flushing the toilet until i consumed all my energy and so, i decided to give up. i took a shower again, cleaned all the things i’ve used and decided to just wait for monday. professional help. that’s it. that should be it.
march 5, 2007 (monday)
7:00 a.m. i woke up and prayed so hard i won’t have to pay much. i was hoping that when i flush the toilet, it would be okay already. i went to check the bowl but i figured one more flushing would cause a little more trouble and so, i went down to informed the pad incharge instead. 30 minutes later, he’s ringing my door bell. he flushed the toilet and understood the case. i didn’t tell him i had brush stuck inside. he didn’t ask me anyway. he went down to get something - the rubber thing for unclogging, just ike the one i was using, but a bigger one. in my mind, i said, “that’s not gonna work. i did it already.” but i just allowed him to do what he thought of doing. he flushed the toilet and then quickly unclogged the bowl with his rubber unclogger. well, water slowly goes. but that doesn’t mean that it’s working. he flushed again and unclogged again. alas! it’s working! it’s flushing perfectly fine. but then i told him that if i put a tissue paper, it won’t get flushed. so, i did throw in a few sheets and flushed it myself. wow! amazing! it worked! i put some tissue paper again and flushed. there’s no doubt it’s fixed!
can you imagine that was just what i needed to do to get the brush flushed? a bigger unclogger? coupled with the perfect moves? or perhaps, i just needed the prayer and anything could work?
i am so thankful for that man. i never needed to pay him. not a single centavo. just a “thank you so much” and he’s glad. i never had to even tell him of my stupidity of what i stuck inside!
praise GOD!
extra:
if there’s one lesson i learned from this experience, it is that, i should not wake up early and clean. it’s causing me trouble! LOL. Seriously, it is, that when i am in trouble i only have to do what i could do and leave everything to HIM. undoubtedly, He takes care of everything, especially those that my intellect, experience and power couldn’t do. there are limits to what i can do and think while there are unlimited possibilities of what GOD can do and unlimited number of persons who can be of help. guess i consumed my energy for two days to no avail. LOL. But no regrets! at least, i tried.
two days of having an out-of-order toilet makes me realize just how important toilets are. on days when it’s so cold, i get so lazy of getting up even when i feel like urinating, i knew the toilet is always right there. i kept postponing going to the toilet and thereby, taking its presence for granted. now, i realized, i should be using the toilet as often as i feel like it, for when it’s not there, i would long for it’s presence really badly.
always, in life, there are some things we take for granted and only realize their value when they’re gone.
Posted: March 5th, 2007 under Funny, Religion, Serious Talk.
Comments: 4
