THERE IS A GOD.

We once again have a functional sewer line! Dear lord was that a nightmare. Our toilet worked for all of like 3 uses before it started not flushing again, but mercifully the landlady was very responsive and authorized payment for it, so I could set up the repairs the company had told us last night were basically necessary unless we wanted to have a few feet of raw sewage in our house or poop in a bucket.

We had to have the poor plumber guys out again this evening (in the pouring rain, I might add) to dig a 3' deep hole and find out where the horrible clog was. This turned out to be a Y bend in the line which had formerly been capped on one outlet with cement. This had broken, and a whole bunch of dirt had gotten into the line, which I'm sure was exacerbated by the near flood-stage rains we've had lately.

They ripped that thing out and put in the part that is supposed to be there, the cleanout (which by the way is required by code and so we were sort of living illegally by not having one), and fixed everything up.

OUR TOILET FLUSHES, Y'ALL! Mere words cannot express how happy I am about this. You do not truly appreciate your toilet until you do not have it. I kind of want to go hug it now but, y'know, ew.

I love you, Puget Sound Plumbing & Heating. If I weren't already married to an awesome dude, I would consider dating your company. I am THAT happy. (I settled for serving the plumbers hot tea, for which they were very grateful. I would be too if I had to dig a hole in the chilly rain.)

Also, thank god we rent this house. If we didn't, we would be out around $2660 by now. This has been a major learning experience. I now know more than I ever thought I'd need to about showers, sinks, toilets, and sewer line snaking.

In other news, I played through Chopin's Prelude in E Minor tonight while waiting for them to finish (playing kind of calms my nerves, a little), and it wasn't terrible. I've never played it before, so I did my usual learning bit of playing the right hand, then the left, and then putting them together. It was slow going, but it sounded nice. Besides, doesn't largo mean slow anyway? That's what I'm telling myself. It's nice to know I haven't lost it all in the decade and a half or so since I quit really playing.

Thank you, darling parents, for giving me all those lessons and forcing my lazy self to practice. I owe you.