Monday, August 14, 2006

Like MacGyver

The shower in the spare bathroom is broken. Well, not exactly. The hot water faucet is stripped out, so when you turn the faucet, it just turns around and around the screw, not turning on the water.
The problem has been temporarily taken care of by using a screwdriver to turn the screw and thus turn on the hot water. It's very inconvenient.
Two days ago, Elizabeth took a bath in there. After she was done, I pulled the plug to let all the water out of the tub. As the water drained out, I helped her over the edge of the tub. Her foot kicked the screwdriver into the tub.
It skidded down the side, rode the wave of tub water toward the drain and then POOF! it was gone.
Down the drain.

"OH MY GOD!" I exclaimed.

With all that has been going on, I decided to leave the screwdriver until I absolutely HAD to deal with it.
I absolutely HAD to deal with it yesterday when Elizabeth insisted on taking a bath. When I say insisted, I mean she asked to take a bath and when she was not immediately lowered into hot soapy water she threw herself on the floor, kicked, screamed, cried and generally lost her mind.

So into the tub I went with a flashlight and various implements which I thought would assist in removing the screwdriver from the drain.

Yarn lasso? Failed.
Wire lasso? Failed.
Chewing gum stuck to BBQ skewer? Failed miserably, in fact, I lost the gum in the drain and thus had a side mission to get the gum out.
Yarn lasso again? Failed again.
Electrical wire? Failed.
Many many other options were discussed (wine cork skewer, vacuum) and all were dismissed.
Finally a lightbulb!

I got a magnet from the fridge, a good strong one, stuck it to the end of the BBQ skewer (it was metal) and played Operation with the screwdriver for about two minutes (don't touch the sides!) until finally SUCCESS!!

"You did it!" Elizabeth cheered. "I take a bath?"

9 comments:

Freebird said...

IF you had to, you could be a single parent. You've passed the "having to figure shit out for yourself without a man" test.

Freebird said...

you actually thought gum would work?? lol

Unknown said...

LOL! Now charge yourself $125 for being a plummber!

Anonymous said...

I'll take the hit for the gum idea. It was mine. I chewed it. It failed. But Jessey did pass the test with flying colors. That, and killing a nest full of wasps on the back deck...plumbing? check. Insects? check. Once she picks up her first dead mouse, she'll be going full steam ahead in the independent woman world.
-Erin

eva said...

hahahahahaah. Gum. Silly rabbits, leave that to the cartoon characters.

Chris said...

Next time, to make it less of a chore, hum some theme music to yourself. Something like Mission Impossible or the Bond Theme.

Jessica said...

I honestly didn't think the gum would work...but, since Erin is so clever, I gave her the benefit of the doubt.

Neither of us was clever enough to think of magnets before an hour had elapsed.
So lame.

eaf said...

I can't even begin to find words to say how funny the pictures in my head are. If this had been me and a friend, we would have been peeing ourselves laughing as we tried to snag said screwdriver.

Excellent work, MacGyver!

Jessica said...

If it wasn't ME doing it, I would have laughed also.
It was very frustrating to try to get that damn screwdriver out. It's a sign...the sign says "FIX THE SHOWER!"