By 6:00 a.m. This Day Had Already Gone Down the Drain

I awoke this morning, still frustrated by my lack of productivity yesterday (which was the result of getting only three hours of sleep the previous night, which was the result of my need to finish the new Harry Potter book before going to bed Tuesday evening). Shortly after hitting "snooze" a couple times, I got up to find that one of the toilets had not filled back up following its last flush. This problem is usually easily remedied by opening the tank and briefly jiggling a particular part of the commode's inner mechanics. This morning, unfortunately, the toilet resisted and a great deal more jiggling was required.

Once I was confident that the toilet was filling back up, I went to the kitchen to work on breakfast. After filling the coffee pot and the cats' water bowls, I found myself fighting with the faucet, which wouldn't stop running water. My lengthy struggle with the kitchen sink ended in my turning off the hot water. Now, the water isn't constantly running, but it is constantly cold.

When I showered a few minutes later, I noticed that, during much of my shower, I was standing in a small pool of water. Since I'd already done some plumbing this morning, I decided to pull some hairballs (held together by soap-and-shampoo residue) out of the drain. I wasn't able to clear the drain as much as I had hoped, but I did get a close look at just how filthy the tub in the master bath has gotten.