'Have A Good Evening.'

"Have a good evening."

That's what the cashier at Wal-Mart told me as I was checking out in the 10-items-or-less lane about 8 pm on the Monday of a holiday weekend.

I know her remark was one of those reflex sayings that just come out automatically without thinking. It's like telling someone "Good morning." when there is a foot of snow on the ground and knowing that that person has a driveway to shovel.

That would be anything but a "Good morning."

I'm sure that was the same sentiment in this case. The cashier told me to "Have a good evening" without bothering to consider the nature of the two items I was buying.

One was a Super-Plunger and the other was a gallon of drain cleaner.

Unless you happen to be Type-A Boy Scout who want to be prepared for every possible life scenario I would wager that anyone who checks out at Wal-Mart in the 10-items-or-less lane with a Super-Plunger and a gallon of drain cleaner at 8 pm on the Monday of a holiday weekend is almost certainly NOT having a good evening.

Those two purchases can only mean one thing and one thing only: a blocked plumbing line.

In this case, the main line at the rental house my wife and I own was blocked. It's the fourth time this has happened.

The first time occurred a couple years ago. Plunging at the basement floor drain failed to clear the blockage, so I called in our plumber.

He cleared the line with his Roto-Rooter, but then hit something that led him to believe that we might have a collapsed line. Great. That is not something you want to hear as a landlord. However, before we acted on that hunch he recommended we pay to have a camera run down the line. That turned out to be a worthwhile investment.

The video showed that the pipe was clean and the obstruction he hit turned out to be the backwall of the pipe that the mainline teed into.

Fast forward to this year.

This past winter we had the second blockage. Again plunging the basement floor drain proved fruitless. I called in the plumber. It took him almost as long to get the heavy Roto-Rooting machine into the basement as it did for him to clear the blockage.

And then it happened again at the beginning of June. Once again I tried plunging. Once again I called in the plumber.

Now it has happened a fourth time.

On the Monday night of a holiday weekend.

This time I thought that maybe the plunger we already owned and had tried on the three earlier occasions, didn't have enough hmmmmmppph. After all, it was just one of these rubber bell plungers that have probably existed since Thomas Crapper popularized the indoor loo in the 19th century. I also hadn't tried any chemical remedies during the preceding blockages.

So I ran out to Wal-Mart and bought a Super-Plunger -- I knew it just had to be much more powerful that my regular plunger -- and a gallon of drain cleaner.

Sadly, the plunger was not so super. The chemicals didn't work either. I went back to my own house and called my plumber's answering service.

And when he showed up Tuesday morning with his massive Roto-Rooting machine, I had two words for him:

"Good morning."