Down the Drain...

As I was washing my hands last night, my iron ring fell off my pinkie, and slid into the drain. Ack! I pulled out the drain plunger, and tried to snag it with a hook first... [ploop] down into the trap. Crap. Then I tried to see if I could fish it out with the drain snake. Nothin', except for the slimy black buildup recovered from the pipe walls. Crap... time to break out the heavy artillery:


The next step was to try to get the P-trap open (the thing that catches rings on the way out to Deer Island, and keeps the sewer gases out of your house). I first managed to pull out the plug at the bottom of the P-trap. Just doing this first step has made me realize that pedestal sinks are utterly evil. Yes, they're fucking pretty. And they're also a gawdawful pain to work on, especially if the installer carefully hid the supply valves behind the pedestal base, so that there's no room to work on the drain line. Grr!

After much gripping-with-pliers-at-bad angles, I got the plug out (and a trapful of water for my troubles). But no ring. Grr!

Okay, time to remove the entire trap (that U-shaped thing in the picture above). Again required way more effort than it should... and... wha?--nothing. Aw crap. I searched the various slimy arterial plaques that I removed from the pipes, and then re-snaked the various pieces I had open. WTF?!


Aw crap. Looks like it's gone. I guess I must have pushed it down the pipe while snaking the drain or something.

Man... I don't want to have to go back to grad school for another degree! (kidding--you can get a replacement, if you pay the fee and supply the proof of attending the ceremony).

As I was dejectedly heading to sleep, JMD shook me awake. "Hey Bats, check out what I found on the bathmat!" Whoah. There it was! If you look carefully at the photo above, you can see that it was sitting on the the bathmat during much of the work I was doing!


I'm guessing that either (1) I pulled it out using the drain snake, but didn't realize it, or (2) it came out of the P-trap without me noticing, and landed on the bathmat, so I didn't hear it.

Anyway, I'm glad to have it back.