We have a tradition in my family. One that I’d like to break, but cannot seem to. For as long as I can remember, whenever we have family gathered for any holiday we have our traditional plumbing breakdown. Yes, that’s right. No matter whose house we’re at, no matter what time of the year, it always seems to happen. We’ve had trouble with drains, supplies, toilets, sewer back-ups and flooding. Kind of makes the men in our family worried to get everyone together.

This year was my turn. We had the family dinner for Thanksgiving at our home. My wife was up early, busily baking away. She came in and woke me up with, “Honey do we have any drain opener?” Not exactly my favorite phrase to be woken up by. The culprit was apparently potato peels way down the drain. So I took apart all the undersink drain parts, finding no clog. Had to go to the store to get a snake. Fifteen feet was not enough to reach the clog, and now I was really mad. Nothing I like doing better than this on Thanksgiving. Back to the store again and two bottles of Drano Max Gel later the clog finally gave way and we were able to put our kitchen back in shape in time for dinner.

The moral to this story? I’m not certain there is one. But next year, we’re going out for Thanksgiving dinner!