Royal Flush

An interesting train of thought: balancing my glasses on the edge of the sink the other morning led me to remember the cautionary tale my mother told me: as a child she had put her glasses on the rounded top of the toilet tank, they slipped off, and broke on the floor. I grew up in that same house, with that same toilet, and so I have been careful evermore, even now when glasses are so much more robust, and toilets tank lids are flat and (in my house) covered with magazines and Sudoku books.

Which could lead me down one path, of thinking how these little anecdotes survive in a family; everyone is familiar with family sayings and phrases that outsiders don't understand. Deep thoughts, indeed. Instead, I thought of low-flush toilets.

The family that now lives in the house in which my mother and I (and her mother, too, now that I think of it) grew up made extensive renovations to it: it needed them, being built in 1910. They added some rooms, opened up my pathetically small bedroom into the next one and made it the master bedroom, and so on. And renovated the bathroom. New toilet (flat tank lid). I was thinking, then, of how silly they were to get rid of that old toilet, despite the danger posed by the rounded top; it was sturdy, reliable, and was definitely not low-flow. I had heard how people were bidding up the price on old toilets because of how poorly the new mandated low-flow toilets worked. I have encountered a few bad toilets myself. And, despite the decent operation of my current unit, I persisted in my prejudice against them.

Uncle Cecil to the rescue: that same day, the topic du jour: Do low-flush toilets actually save water? The answer: yes they do. And they work better than ever.

As a matter of fact, as mentioned, I have had very little problem with the flushing aspect of my unit, despite my best efforts. The only issue I have with the thing is with the guts; I must replace the flapper every other year, and the float assembly every four. Never had to do that with Mom's toilet. Hmmph. I've gotten pretty good at it; and I have finally gotten the downstairs toilet adjusted so I get a full flush every time: it's a small tank and a tight squeeze, but I've gotten every inch out of it. I finally realized that the inside of the tank lid isn't level with the top of the tank itself, which means the float unit can extend out a bit more. I even replaced the wax seal on the upstairs toilet, taking the whole thing out. The stuff you do when you're a homeowner.