...an explosive chemical reaction can occur.

I know nothing of plumbing but, logic is another thing. The kitchen sink had been very slow draining for what seemed like forever. After rinsing out a glass yesterday nothing happened, the water just sat there. I used the trusty new plunger brought just for this anticipated occasion. Squish, squish, gurgle, squish and still the water just sat there. After trying several hopeless avenues I then unscrewed all of the pipes underneath. The pipes were of course crammed with green algae-looking stuff. I cleaned those and put them back into place. I then ran the water a few feet and it just sat there. I went down to the basement and tapped on pipes and tried to unscrew caps as if I knew what I was doing. Hint: if you spray WD40 at an angle above your head it will float back down to your glasses and you skill will feel warm... like burning. A fools errand. It was the wrong order I know but, this required some thought.

I ate dinner, Chicken and Rice. Afterwards, I removed the pipes from under the sink again, placed a pan there and washed the dinner dishes. I dumped the pan of soapy water outside. I then made a cup of tea and sat on the side of the bed when, Sulfuric Acid came to mind. That was it! The 32oz bottle of Sulfuric Acid drain opener had warnings and instructions which I carefully read twice. Some of the warnings seemed pretty obvious like, "don't look directly in to the drain after pouring the acid down." -Oh, so tempting. 'My eyes, my eyes,' the burning would be a bit too King Lear-esque for me. "How sharper than a serpent's tooth," and all that. I therefore stepped as far away as I could while pouring the stuff down. I used four ounces as the instructions read and nothing happened. I eventually dumped the entire bottle down and waited 15 minutes before flushing the drain with cold water. I even put an upside down bucket over the drain because the instructions led me to expect an eruption. There were no eruptions but, the drain made a sigh and was now clear. I ran the cold water for about 10 minutes and I was home free. I was starting to feel proud of myself until I looked under the sink.

I usually toss the dirty towels under the sink and eventually wash them. I neglected to remove them before I started my little project. About an eighth of a cup of the acid had leaked from the pipe fittings on to the towels. Even through my rubber gloves the towels were extremely hot. I guess there were about a dozen towels there all ruined and steaming, but kinda cool in a 9th grade Earth Science kinda way. I guess it was a good idea after all not to look into the drain.

Speaking of drains... After putting everything back to normal I giggled through Larry King as (D)Eric Massa's career circled the...