A Better Start

Last year during the break between semesters I was very unproductive (see here and here), which resulted in Susan's desperate attempts to motivate me (see here). This year I was very productive, as shown in my "30 Days of Creativity" door in my garage studio. The circled dates (a total of 4) were days when I didn't do anything creative.

I painted this door several years ago, it's to the right of my work area; in the spring and fall I leave the door open and sometimes get wrens coming in to visit.

One thing I worked on off and on was my collection of Pod People.  The tallest are about 6" high and all of these still need glazing of some sort of another. Or maybe they'll just stay like this.

A conclusion, sort of, to the Toto toilet problem (see here). Definitely we have a Gravitation Push/Force Flow issue which can only be resolved by tearing down our house, ripping out the concrete foundation, pouring a new one with reworked pipes and then rebuilding the entire house. Not going to happen. The only way to resolve a Gravitation Push issue with a government-mandated low-flow flush toilet is to flush at least 3 times.  No further discussion on this issue.

However, on a bright note (as if there would be one when discussing toilets), Susan, in a fit of anger about the whole mess, desperately called the Customer Service number she found for Toto. After fumbling through the options (Press 2 if you need a toilet, Press 3 if you want to unstick your Barbie from your toilet, Press 4 if you can't figure out how to flush your toilet, Press 5 if you want to know what fanny-ribbon is....) she got an option for Technical Assistance For Your Toto Toilet. 

I know you aren't going to believe this, but here it is:
A real, live person answered the phone.  Brian.
A real, live person, Brian, here in the United States, who was NOT reading off a script.
Not only was it a real person, Brian, he let her rant and rave and then calmly walked us through about 10 different checkpoints - the two of us peering into the tank and trying not to drop the phone in the toilet as he helped us confirm everything was working correctly.  In the end it it only cost us 1 penny to find out that the toilet was working correctly and I only had to make one trip to Lowes for a new part (for which he gave me the exact SKU number).  And.... he gave her his phone number to call back if she had more problems! Susan spotted a mechanical part that wasn't aligned correctly, it's been bent back into place, the flapper is happy and the Toto flushes with a gurgle. We'd prefer the old-fashion whoosh but sometimes you have to take what you can get.

We still hate the damned low-flush toilet, we hate that if you have a problem a plunger will not fit in the tank correctly, and we hate that we have a Gravitation Push/Force Flow issue (yeah, I know, Let the Force Be With You). We now know that changing to another brand of toilet won't solve anything and that Toto is about as good as we can get.

Thank you, Toto, for having a real person provide Customer Service, we are still in awe that you did. And how sad is it that we are shocked to find good Customer Service?

Susan speaks: He's back in school starting today. Or, as I call it, Adult Day Care.