Brian has a lot of trade skills and the past few work days he has taken me along as his helper. He refers to me as tonto. I don't have trade skills, but have definitely improved in the past year of volunteering, and will agree to do most any task where others need some "muscle", climbing ability or general grunt work.
Today's task was a non-functioning pump on a septic toilet. So off we went to find the problem and get the toilet back in operation. I haven't done a lot of toilet repair other than jiggling a handle, replacing the innards of a tank and tightening or replacing toilet seats. This one started out with dirty smelly water and a tank where the pump was located which needed to be drained, cleaned and the pump removed to find why it wasn't pumping. Without going into too many dirty details, we were able to find the problem (a handi-wipe tangled in the rotor), clean the system, put it back together, repair a pipe we needed to cut and be on our way. We had been ready with heavy duty pipe wrenches, a snake and multiple buckets, but the problem was a relatively easy one for the Lone Ranger and Tonto. From the jobs I have been involved with in Arkansas and here, as well as some Habitat for Humanity work, and some do-it-yourself projects, I have gained a greater appreciation for the tradesmen jobs and why the charges for their services are so high. Thank you, all for your willingness to do these jobs as a career and for as long as your body can endure the physical demands put on it. By the way, kemo sabe, from now on, tonto don't do toilets.
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