What's That Smell? [View all]
My wife and I came home yesterday, walked in the door, and my wife said, "What's that smell?" When I walked in, I had the same reaction. A sulfurous, foul odor could easily be detected. I first looked over at the dog, but he didn't look guilty, like he usually does if we're gone and he gets caught short and can't wait to poop. It's invariable...he looks sheepish when that happens.
I had just cleaned the cat's litter box that morning, so it wasn't cat crap, either. So, we opened the house doors and a couple of windows and I went exploring. The smell got stronger as I went into the basement and was strongest of all in the basement laundry and furnace room. Yuck!
I tracked it down to the floor drain in the basement floor, and shortly figured out what the problem was. I'm not a native Minnesotan, and California homes don't have either basements or floor drains, so I had not thought much about that drain in the laundry room. But now it was smelly, but why? It took me a couple of minutes before I realized that there was probably a U-trap under that drain, and that the water in that trap had evaporated, letting sewer gasses get into the house. So, I dumped some water in the floor drain to refresh the trap and the smell stopped. After a couple of hours, circulating air got rid of it everywhere in the house. Live and learn. Life's different in Minnesota in so many ways, really.
But, it got me thinking. A neglected floor drain, like the republican party, starts stinking if you ignore it too long. Now, pouring a couple of gallons of water into the floor drain flushes it out and renews the water seal, blocking that stink. I wonder how much water we need to pour down the bottomless pit of Republican politics before it is flushed out and sealed up? However much it requires, I think it's time to start carrying buckets of water over to that stinking drain. We've got to seal that thing up and stop those foul gasses from stinking up the place. We may need a bucket brigade, but we should get started right away.
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