Woman Seeks Pipe Wrench

My bathroom sink has been clogged for the past few weeks. But I don't want to use a drain cleaner because it doesn't work all that well and can damage the pipes. This morning I unscrew that little round thingy that seals the sink and start fishing around in there with a modified coat hanger tool. I was pulling out God knows what. I mean really, it is freakin' disgusting. After all that, the sink still doesn't drain all that well. But by this time I had screwed that little round thingy back down. I guess I must have screwed it too far down because the stopper is stuck in the tightly sealed position and I can't pry it up. Crap!

So I decide that what I really need to do is just remove the entire stopper. That way I'll unstick the stopper and I can really clear the clog. I go on-line to Natural Handyman.com and learn that I need to unscrew the pivot joint and remove the ball and rod. *snickers* So fine, easy right. I unscrew the pivot joint and remove ball and rod and the stopper pops right out. whoohoo! I clear the clog, clean off the stopper and drop it back into the hole. And it immediately gets stuck in the tightly sealed position. So I pop it back out, unscrew the thingy that seals the sink and drop the rest of the stopper into the hole. Buh Bye.

I thought it would fall into place and I could adjust the ball and rod. However since I had not replaced the ball and rod and had taken off the thingy that seals the sink there was nothing to prevent the rest of the stopper from falling all the way down the pipe. FUCK! Fuck! Fuck!

So now I need a pipe wrench to remove the drain trap to get the stopper out. So perhaps Natural Handyman.com could have included a little tidbit in the helpful hints about replacing the ball and rod before dropping the stopper in. Obvious? Perhaps, now that I think about it.

-Chel