Smile-breaks
Plumb wrong!
I pulled the little doo-dad behind the faucet in the bathroom sink and "whomp!" the pop-up stopper stopped up the hole in the sink! Yay!
Once upon a time. . . Oh, sorry. A coupl'a weeks ago… No, make that a coupl'a months ago, the pop-up stopper stopped stopping up the drain hole. I rushed out, got a replacement, installed it all by my lonesome and it's been popping up and down ever since.
That would be a fairy tale. I didn't rush out; I put up with that unstopped drain hole for, well, a couple of months. You know how time flies in this pandemic and what's a little ol' drain hole that doesn't close gonna do? But then one day I had nothing better to do so I considered fixing that pop-up stopper.
Considered. I took a good look at the broken stopper. A critical piece had broken off, so the stopper itself wasn't fixable. I'd have to get a new one. This, before my eldest son, Bryan, contorted himself to get under the sink—from which I had removed all the "stuff" several days before, in order to clear the path for myself, but better yet, a willing son!
He popped the pop-up into the drain hole. Then he twisted and turned his body to get inside the cabinet that held the sink-workings. He flash-lighted, moved the metal bands, moved other stuff and said, "Try it now." Nothing. "Try it again." He twisted himself out of the cubbyhole and asked to see the old stopper."
"Oh, mom! The stopper's broken! Why didn't you tell me?"
"I'm sorry. I thought you knew."
"Okay. Well, obviously you have to get a new one. Take the old one to the hardware store and get one exactly like it."
Back story: I had already ordered one from Amazon. It didn't fit. I did the logical thing: I ordered another, different one, from Amazon. It didn't fit.
Obeying my smart son's advice, I tootled off to Dixieline with the old stopper in hand. Could not find anything that looked remotely like it. Waited an eternity for a salesclerk. But then, he couldn't find one, either. Oh, wait! He got out his keys, opened the doors to a tall glass cabinet and pulled out a pop-up stopper just like mine. "That's the one!" he cheerily told me.
I bought it, went home and procrastinated. Didn't want to crawl under the sink—not yet. A few days later I manned-up. Or woman-ed up, if you prefer. . . I twisted into my best "getting under the sink in the cabinet" position and crawled into it, flashlight in hand. I'd strategically placed the pop-up thing in the drain hole—where, by the way—I couldn't see it, being that I was under the sink.
I spent hours, on different days, trying to get that stopper installed properly. I turned it this way and that way and then out of desperation one day, I held it alongside the old one. Whaddaya know? It was a quarter of an inch longer. Of course it didn't work.
Back to the store. A different store. On my way to my haircut appointment the next week, I stopped in at El Cajon Hardware, conveniently located next door to the hair salon. The young clerk went straight to the display on the far wall and picked up a pop-up-stopper exactly—notice that, exactly!—like my old one. I took it home and a few days later, I contorted my body into that "under the sink in the depths of the cabinet" position that is critical to all good plumbing efforts Two hours later—maybe three? Who knows?—I had that pop-up stopper in pop-up position.
Whenever I pop that stopper up or down now, I smile. Not everyone can install a pop-up stopper that easily.
