I told you earlier that I hosted a party recently, but didn't mention that in the middle of the party, somebody came to me and said, "Carita, something strange is going on with your toilet." I had a flashback to some friends who, many years ago in their dorm apartment, had raw sewage shooting out of their toilet, so I got a little scared.
When I got to the bathroom, I saw bubbles. I smelled soap. I had no idea how this happened.
I called security. (As an aside, one of the many great things about living at a boarding school is that we can call security to get all kinds of help at all kinds of hours. When we retire and move off campus, we're really not going to have any clue how to deal with things that happen in our house. We'll figure it out.) The guys came and looked at it and seemed as confused about and amused by the situation as we were.
When the plumber came, he figured out that our upstairs neighbor, who's four years old, poured a bottle of shampoo down his bathtub's drain without putting any water into the tub. When his family did the laundry, the water washed through the shampoo in the drain causing a massive overflow of bubbles, so many that they came up from our toilet, two floors down. I know, the story's not all that crazy once I explain it.
The mom who lives upstairs sent me a text of apology for the trouble her son's action had caused, but I don't think she needed to apologize because (1) of all the things that could be coming up through our toilet into our house, this was by far the best option and (2) the humor of "something strange happening in our toilet" was worth the whole thing.
Have you ever had "something strange" happen in your toilet or otherwise? Please feel free to write about it in the comments.
To me, suggests healthy 4 year old experimenting. I wonder what she/he will be doing/studying in 20 years?
Yes, Bill. I’m guessing that my upstairs neighbor will become some great kind of scientist who can say that the experimentations he did as a little kid set him on the path!