Grandkids and the Magic Toilet

Or Adventures in Bathroom Learning


Kids discover early in life that the flush handle on the toilet is a magical device to make things disappear. Years ago when my kids were little and more times than I can count . . . I had to lift the toilet and use a sewer snake to clear the blocked toilet drain. Lucky for me plumbing was right up my alley so toilet removal was yet another bathroom activity which the children found absolutely fascinating. I felt like a scuba diver for Roto-Rooter and went sewer fishing so often that (for a while) we kept a stock of wax rings in the bathroom cupboard . . . they're cheaper by the dozen, you know.


(Helpful housekeeping hint: Articles of clothing that have progressed past the P-trap of the toilet are no longer serviceable. Even if they weren’t shredded when the sewer snake snagged them, the stains will not come out and who would want to wear it again anyway.)


One recent Sunday afternoon, the grandkids were over as we were going to have an early season cookout. Everyone was in the living room when we heard the toilet flush. It suddenly occurred to me that all the authorized “flushers” in the family were in the room so I ran to the bathroom just in time to see our two grandkids (ages 5-years and 2-years) gripping the toilet rim like a railing . . . their bright eyes were fixed on a rubber ducky (plucked from the bathtub) who was swimming in tight little circles. I rescued the duck from his imminent peril and then delivered a stern lecture about drowning the duck that did not like the “little pond” and wanted to stay swimming in the bigger pond with his other friends.


My harsh voice and disapproving thump on their butt cured them of their magical toilet tricks . . . so far anyway.


Ice

Comments

Chatty Crone said…
I wouldn't count on it.
4:48 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Morrison Springs - Ponce de Leon, Florida

Image
Morrison Springs Ponce de Leon, Florida County road 181 Morrison Springs was one of our favorite dive spots on many of our Florida trips but it also had the most danger to it.  One of Northwest Florida’s best-kept secrets was known to more Georgia and Alabama folks than Floridians.  And they weren’t talking.  It had to do with the jewel of a Panhandle spring, a turquoise pool surrounded by stately cypress trees whose aerial roots stand taller than a man. Below the surface, clear, 68-degree water wells up from a spring cave source over 90 feet deep. Morrison Springs is just far enough off the beaten path in this sunny pine and cypress country to be special for any diver lucky enough to find and dive the site. The shallow pool reflects the overhead blue sky and if the water is clear and the bottom clean of silt, it resembles a giant sapphire.  Unlike some springs with a deep, black hole source, this one takes visitors gradually into its shallows from a gol...
Read more

Are Showing Your Nipples Appropriate Work Attire?

Image
Let me first say that personally, I have no problem with it at all. This has been kind of a weird week here in the north land with the first of many winter snowfalls’s to come and the landscape once again beautifully covered in the white stuff. It looks like the kids will have to put their Halloween costume on over a snowsuit again this year as the cold snowy stuff is here again. That is not what I wanted to write about tonight but was necessary to set up what I did want to write about. “Frosty nipples” are quite common here during most of the year and when things cool down on the cusp of winter probably more so. Work attire with tight shirts or low cut blouses that ‘make a statement’ during colder weather could be taken several ways by co-workers or visitors to your place of business. While you may not always be taken seriously by others in the office and some may have trouble looking you in the face, I say it's a freedom of rights issue. If you want to show o...
Read more

Biscuits and Whores

Image
Some of the best things about life I learned from Lonesome Dove. Great movie, excellent characters, and tells a story about how to live life. Augustus McCrae “It ain’t dying I’m talking about, it’s living.   I doubt it matters where you die, but it matters where you live.” I'm just tryin' to keep everything in balance, Woodrow. You do more work than you got to, so it's my obligation to do less. “Yesterday’s gone and we can’t get it back.” “I'm sure partial to the evening,' Augustus said. 'The evening and the morning.   If we just didn't have to have the rest of the dern day I'd be a lot happier.” Hat Creek Cattle Company Well we don't rent pigs and I figure it's better to say it right out front because a man that does like to rent pigs is . . . he's hard to stop. Biscuits “I never knew you to get excited about anything except biscuits maybe . . . and whores!”    Captain Woodrow Call to Augustus McCrae in Lonesome Dove. Whores L...
Read more