In article ,
"Clive Summerfield" writes:
"Andrew Gabriel" wrote in message
...
Watch out that the rubber seal doesn't flick **** in your
face when it does finally come out...

And my neighbour thought I was daft wearing a mask and goggles when I
replaced most of our soil stack. Glad I'm not the only person to be on the
receiving end of rubber-propelled **** fragments when working on a stack.
But after the first time, mask and goggles every time.

I always wear goggles for this sort of thing. A full face mask
would be even better...

One rather amusing occasion, I was unblocking my parents' sewer.
Put the goggles on before lifting the manhole, since it's a heavy
cast iron lid, which as you lever it up, tends to slip back again
first few times spraying sh*t into the air. Parents watching from
safety of bathroom window were initially much amused by the goggles,
but then saw why I was wearing them. Having got the lid off, I stood
over the manhole for a few moments, peering down into the large
reservoir of, well, sh*t, pondering what to do next. At that moment,
the elastic on the goggles snapped, and they went straight down the
manhole, landing with a juicy splat on the top of the reservoir of,
you know what. Well, maybe you had to be there, but we all just
dissolved into uncontrollable laughter at this point. I fished the
goggles out of the manhole with the hooked end of a drain rod and
dropped them in the dustbin -- couldn't see myself wearing those
again no matter how I cleaned them ;-).

The saga continued. My parents' drain rods, bamboo with brass fittings,
had been standing in their garage for years in an old dustbin.
Meanwhile, the garage roof had started leaking into the dustbin, so
the net effect was than one end of each drain rod was a little on the
rotten side. This made me hesitent about using them. Found one of
the sprung steel sink unblockers, and thought I'd try with that.
This didn't work because it's not stiff enough for a sewer. Tried
rinsing it off with the hose to wind it back into a roll, and it's
springing **** in all directions (it's like a long clock spring for
anyone who hasn't seen one). And remember, my goggles are now in the
dustbin. Anyway, gave up cleaning and rewinding the sprung steel, and
decided to just drop it in the dustbin with the goggles. Oh, but it's
not having any of that. If you're really bored one day, try unrolling
one of these and then putting it in a dustbin (wheelie bin actually),
and getting the lid slammed shut before the darn thing springs out.
Now imagine that it's also covered in liquid sh*t which sprays in all
directions each time it twangs. You're getting close...

Back to the blocked sewer... Decide I have to use the drain rods.
Well, you know what happened next -- the end came off one of the
rods whilst pushing it down the drain. Fortunately, it was inside
the manhole where it broke, so all I had to do was reach down with
my arm about 2' into the reservoir of **** to fish out the broken
end. When I pulled the remainder out, the blockage finally cleared,
and the manhole emptied.

IIRC, I went and had a hot bath...

--
Andrew Gabriel