Sometimes it really is THAT simple...

After years of working in IT, having faced many troubleshooting episodes, I've developed a way of quickly solving problems. One of the things to remember is to not overlook the obvious or most simple solution in favor of a more complex one. Well... you would think that with all of this experience that it would carry over into other areas of life, right? Guess not. Guess I turn off the brain after 5pm on Friday...

When Gustav blew through, bringing some (unofficial) 20 inches of rain, which caused our normally dry creek to turn into a raging river that even overflowed its banks into our yard, our yard remained a little soggy.
High water after Hurricane Gustav


Since we're out in the country, we are on a septic tank system. When the water in the tub stopped draining, I jumped to the conclusion that our drain field was too wet, causing the tank to be full. So, in preparation for calling a pump truck out, I started to dig to find the access hole on the tank. About 30 minutes later, I tried to call the retired plumber that originally hooked up our house to the tank, but he didn't answer. So, I decided to Google this problem. I found some web sites that explained this problem of excess water causing the types of problems that I was having. The sites recommended against pumping, so we just decided that we would limit water usage until the water went down. What fun... No baths -- short showers only -- not letting the water down the drain. I even siphoned out the bathtub in the kids bathroom! Also, limited flushing! The boys were already back to nature.

Well, the plumber returned home, saw my name/number on caller id, and returned my call. It was after 6pm and already starting to get dark, so I figured, since this was Saturday, that he wouldn't be able to come until Monday. To my surprise, he said "I need to come help my friend if he can't flush!" So, about 20 minutes later, he was in my yard, running his snake down our drain pipe. Maybe 5 minutes later, the clog was cleared and we were back in business!

Yep -- simply just a blockage at the T in the tank. No digging and no pumping required!

When will I learn????