Tuesday, October 19, 2010

The day I "Fixed" the toilet

I was in my early thirties, newly blind and eager to prove to the world that I could do just about everything I set my mind to.  Of course that would call for a person to have a mind.  But anyway, I had a toilet that was leaking where the water line connected to the toilet.  I decided to repair it.  So I turned off the water and disconnected the line.  Ah, it had some of that waxed string in the threads to assist in making the line secure.  I used to have some, but for the life of me I couldn't recall where it had gotten to. 
Never mind that, I got a spool of string and a chunk of paraffin wax.  I decided that I could soften the wax in a pan on the stove, so I set it up and went back to taking the toilet apart.  Then I heard a crackle.  I jumped up and ran to the kitchen.  The wax was crackling and spluttering.  Naturally I had not bothered to put the pan in a second pan of water.  I turned off the stove burner.  And then I did the second dumb thing.  I picked up the pan.  It burst into flames with a poof.  I'm suddenly holding a blazing torch.  so I tossed it into the sink.  That was my third mistake.  The flames instantly caught the frilly window curtains on fire.  I thought that I had a five pound bag of salt on the shelf next to the stove, but when I pulled it out it turned out to be flour.  I ripped open the sack and dumped the entire bag onto the flaming mess and then turned on the water and pulled the curtains down into the sink.  It's a wonder that the flour dust didn't burst into flame,  too. 
After that I sat down and just shook for about an hour before cleaning up the mess. 
Then I walked to the hardware store and bought a new roll of waxed string. 
 
Curious Carl
 

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