My office is near the family bathroom--or as I still call it, my dad's bathroom. For those of you who don't know, my dad moved in with me after my mom died and lived with me until he passed away.
Without my dad, the bathroom doesn't get used that often. Even though my office is right there, I generally go over to the master bathroom. A habit that I had while my dad was alive.
A month ago? Two months ago? Somewhere in between? The toilet wouldn't stop running after I flushed it. Another flush fixed the problem.
I rarely used that bathroom, but often when I did, the toilet would keep running. Then it didn't stop on the second flush. Or the third.
This isn't the first time I've dealt with this. It's always the flapper. I left the lid off the tank and press the flapper down. The water doesn't stop running.
It takes a while, but I finally get it to stop. No more using that bathroom even on rare occasions. I don't want to deal with the damn thing running.
That worked. For a while.
One day, I'm sitting in my office writing, and I hear what sounds like a small dog yipping. Since my neighbors are horrible about bringing their dogs in when they won't be quiet, I try to ignore it. Finally, it's so distracting, I can't write another word and I'm getting extremely aggravated.
I leave my office and that's when I realize that wasn't a small dog. That's the toilet making noise as it keeps running!
No one had even used it in weeks. I didn't understand why it did that, but I got it to stop.
Then there was the time I came home from a doctor's appointment and heard it running. No one was even home!
Finally, just last week, it started running on its own again, and this time, I could not get it to stop no matter how much flushing and jiggling I did. Time to call a plumber. The price of water in Georgia is ridiculous! One month on the bill down here equals three months in Minnesota.
The first plumber I call is the one my dad always used. I roll to his voicemail and then his mailbox is full so I can't leave a message.
Second plumber I call says I'll have to pay for overtime. This is about 1:30 in the afternoon, but to get me in, they'll have to work late. Um, yeah, let me call someone else.
Third plumber sounded promising. Until the woman in scheduling told me they couldn't get anyone out until the next day. I'm like, but the toilet is running! She didn't even sound sorry about it.
For those of you wondering why I didn't just turn the water off to the toilet, I do not have the kind of shut off where you turn the knob. My shut off requires I pull something out, and the one time I tried, I thought I was going to pull the pipe out of the wall.
I tried the plumber my dad used again. This time he answered. He stopped on his way home and had it fixed in about fifteen minutes. It was a valve, not the flapper. Who knew?
It's actually kind of funny how not getting it fixed right away was weighing on me, especially once it started running on its own. Now I feel so much more relaxed about it. Whew!
