Boy did I have a scare, over the last 36 hours. Not so much in regards to me (or my GI tract), but in re: the plumbing!
Since Tues. Evening, I noticed the toilets starting to back up after flushing, at least intermittently. One would back up but the other would remain free. So, I went to bed. Woke up yesterday morning and one of them still worked while the other would back up. I figured I'd get my "jar" devices for #1 at the ready and hope I didn't have to go #2 while this was going on.
Well you know... Murphy's law. I had to go real bad. By this time, both toilets were backing up. Although , after time, they had slowly reduced to almost nothing in the bowl. I was ready to implement my "s**t can" system (I have empty sealable plastic container cans that used to contain ground coffee) that I might use just like the "jars." But I decided to give one of the toilets another sh*t.... er... uh... "shot."
As far as my personal plumbing went, totally uneventful. Everything exited well, minimal paperwork for clean up, etc.. But that's when the fun stopped.
Of course, this toilet took that precise moment to back up And nothing I could do would free it (plungers did absolutely nothing). Sp there I was. doing Youtube research on cleaning a sewer drain (there's actually some neat gear you can attach to your pressure washer). and figuring out the cost of a "Roto Rooter" type service to come bail me out (hopefully not literally). And having seen some of the other Drain clean videos, I had to consider myself lucky it wasn't as serious. Still, I was totally miserable all afternoon, trying to figure out what to do.
"And, just like that...." (quoting Forest Gump), by the evening, the blockages cleared and both toilets were flushing properly and remain so at present. So I have no idea what happened. I called my water utility this morning and they claimed they were not working in our area yesterday. I'll ask one of my neighbors if they experienced something similar. Anyway, I'm thinking of buying one of these 50' Hydrojet lines (in place of a drain snake) (see image below). They pressure spray water in the front but also a little in the back to keep the line moving forward. The water utility told me I could snake it down the sewer gas outlet pipe on the roof and get to my central sewer drain that way. They could only handle the drain from the outdoor access port to the main sewer. They said they'd do that if it happened again.
What a scare. We'll see what happens over the following week or two.
’s the last 3 days 
