"OK, I just had a plumber over to my place. The garbage disposal went out. Actually, the whole thing corroded away so it looked like I had part of some ancient shipwreck rotting under my sink. ('I'm the king of the Whirlpool!')
Anyway, my point in bringing this up is to comment on two things:
1. That's nasty work, man. The next time I start complaining about my job, I'm going to think of this poor guy under my sink. I was under there last week trying to figure out what the problem was, and jury-rig it enough so I wouldn't have to swim through the kitchen. That was bad enough. This guy had to get in there with tools and parts. It's gross, dank, detailed, hard labor. I'm glad I didn't try to do it myself. It took this guy several hours (because there was more wrong than just the garbage disposal) but what he did would have taken me a good week and probably into the next--if I could have done it at all.
2. Cursing. Now, some folks are offended by 'dirty words' but let me assure you that if you are wrist deep in the slime of a plumbing system then there are no such things as 'words' that are 'dirty.' The whole world resolves down into a disgusting reality of fetid water and stuff that has the consistency of snot. When I was down under there trying to figure out the problem I let loose a torrent of language that would turn a U.S. Marine inside out with embarrassment and shame. I invented whole new expletives and curses. This poor guy only let out with the occasional 'sunnuvabich' and in my experience that's as dainty as the hats ladies used to wear on Sundays for a plumber.
So, on the whole, I'm glad this guy came in to take care of it. Professional plumbers are more valuable to our society than 10 times their weight in police, soldiers and schoolteachers."
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