RockBottomBruce

As has been fairly well documented I bought a motorcycle almost 2 weeks ago and promptly put about 1000 miles on it in the first week. What hasn't been documented are my trials and tribulations with the Benjamin Franklin plumbing company 1 week ago. Living in an older house one tends to "get used" to things. One of those things has been; everything drains slowly. Over the years I got accustomed to only running either the dishwasher or the washer but never ever ever ever run them at the same time..... unless I wanted to wash the floor of the garage because water would overflow the utility sink. ANYWAY! Recently the problem escalated to the point where if I ran the dishwasher it backed up into the kitchen sink and then slowly drained after about 30 minutes.

So, since I took a week off to ride my newly acquired motorcycle I made an appointment to have the Benjamin Franklin plumbing company unclog the drains. The plumber arrived promptly on time last Friday, made a quick survey and then began working. After he had been running the roto-rooter gizmo for a couple hours he told me "I have some bad news. The roto-rooter gizmo hit a spot that is bogging it down. When I pulled it out the head was digging into clay. Your sewer line has a break in it." After a few seconds, once my heart started beating again, I asked "What's the next step?" He called his office and they brought a camera out to try and locate the break. As it turned out it was his boss that brought it out. Anyway! When the plumber started to run the camera into the line it was getting blocked much sooner than it should have so, out comes the roto-rooter gizmo again. This time it actually went further than when he thought it hit clay/the break. When he pulled it out his boss looked at the end and determined that it was NOT clay; it was not gritty like clay would be; it was in fact just a very very very very very tough clog. The house is close to 40 years old and he guessed that the line had never been cleaned out, ever.

At this point all my vital signs began returning to normal because that meant that it was back to being a drain that was clogged but not broken. They then made a suggestion that they return on Monday with a different tool to clean the line. So, Monday morning they showed up with a gizmo that actually uses a high pressure jet of water to clean the line. This has the advantage of not just breaking through the clog but also scrubbing the entire line as it goes. He was at the house for about 3 hours on Monday and ran it through a couple of different access points and got everything cleaned out completely. Before he left he had me run the largest possible load of through the washing machine and let it drain out. No back up anywhere! wooHOO!! One other note, I highly recommend the Benjamin Franklin plumbing company. The plumber appologized profusely for misdiagnosing a broken line. And, what would have been a nearly $300 charge for the camera alone was completely removed from the bill as a result.

Which brings me back to my motorcycle. It has a faulty charging system. The parts have been ordered and hopefully will arrive today. I forgot to hook up to the battery charger last night so, when I stopped for gas this morning it wouldn't start again. One of my co-workers rescued me. The battery was so dead that even push starting didn't work. As a result, the bike will be parked until such time as I can get the stator and rectifier (alternator and voltage regulator in automobile terms) replaced. I am finding out that motorcycle parts and repair are not as readily available as car parts and repair. The dealership doesn't stock the parts and, on top of that, once they got the parts in, their service department is already booked up until the middle of August; the 12th was going to be the first available day they would be able to begin work. So being fairly mechanically inclined, I plan on doing as much maintenance as possible myself. The Clymer shop manual is on the way.

Now, THAT'S how I roll.