Last Thursday my daughter and I took to the road on our way to Jonesborough, a quaint little town that is suppose to be the oldest town in Tennessee, to attend my sister reunion. This event is held every year and the three of us Marsh girls take turns hosting it.
We arrived about six in the afternoon after getting confused trying to find our way around Asheville, NC, and the fun began. We all went out to eat, came back to Jackie's house and I beat them both in a game of Scrabble. Friday we went to a play called Welcome to Mitford that was very entertaining and well acted.
My daughter, sister June and I all stayed downstairs and shared a bathroom. About 6 am Saturday morning I woke up and headed to the bathroom. As I opened the door and turned on the light I could see water pouring out of the toilet seat and discovered water had covered the floor. I crawled up the steps as my back is not doing good and those are some steep steps to use the upstairs bathroom and inform my sister of the disaster below.
After helping her get it cleaned up and turning off the water on the toilet her husband came home from the Farmer's market. We thought we would be able to use the upstairs toilet but realized when my other sister went up that water that went down the drain upstairs was coming down and flowing out of the downstairs toilet.
So here we are, four women (and 3 old enough to have bladders that aren't holding up too well) and a man with NO way to take a bath, shampoo, wash our hands unless we stopped up the sink, but most of all NO WAY TO USE THE TOILET! And to top it off this old woman had taken two laxatives the night before and also takes Lasix that makes me go more than normal. What to do??? We went to the gas station, and went to the gas station, and then went to the gas station some more.
My brother-in-law had someone come out to drain the septic tank as he figured all the rain they had recently had it full. He asked the man to keep his truck in the driveway as he thought the hose would reach from there but the man insisted on driving into the yard. Of course with the soggy ground he got stuck and then refused to pump out the tank because it would bog his truck down more. He left and said he would be back Monday.
Finally about 5 pm I decided that my daughter and I needed to head home as I wasn't having much success by the time I traveled the mile to the station. I needed to be able to go when I needed to go. We got about half way home and stopped at a hotel for the night and then came the rest of the way on Sunday.
I talked to my sister on Sunday night. They still were going to the gas station. My sister, June, went in her pajamas about 5 am Sunday morning. So although I missed being with them the rest of the time I don't think I could have stayed without a toilet close by for that long.
