One of those mornings

6am. Our eldest child woke me from my slumbers with "Daaaad, the toilet's overflowed!". Turns out it had thoroughly clogged itself late last night and then a leaky tank valve had allowed water to gradually drip into the bowl overnight. Ugg. However, the rather questionable design of many American low-flush toilets is not the point of this post. In the process of clearing the clog I realized that this was where an education comes in useful. I asked her to flush another toilet in the house which created a partial vacuum in the sewer line and helped my efforts with the plunger. It worked wonderfully! A discussion of the physics involved ensued, but the best bit was seeing my daughter continue to believe that her Dad could fix anything.