How the toilet ended up on the front lawn: A Spadea Thanksgiving

It started as a typical Thanksgiving for us. Up early, out to hot yoga with our friends at Breathing Dragon Yoga, then home to get the turkey in the oven before heading to our friends Tommy and Jacqueline's for what has become a new tradition of breakfast, Bloody Marys and Irish whiskey.

The plan was to include a quiet dinner at home with a perfect turkey from our friends at Just Farmed. Of course, as you might imagine, things don't always go as planned.

It started when I got out of the shower, my son Michael came upstairs asking if there was a plunger. Not a good sign. Then I heard my wife Jodi asking him to hurry as the toilet in the foyer bathroom was bubbling up, then my mother-in-law came out of her room saying that the shower drain was bubbling up dirty water.

At this point, we realized we had a problem. After shutting off the water, Jodi continued defensive action spreading towels around every water spot making sure to control the problem. The good news is that Jodi caught the problem before it was a first-floor flooding disaster.

For many years now, I've been talking about how in Jersey, you need a guy. As you know, our "guys" are at Guaranteed Service. Plumbing, electric, and HVAC. They truly do it all. So I called.

Thanksgiving morning at 10:15 a.m., I'm calling to hopefully get someone to the house to diagnose and solve the problem. Not only do they answer the phone on the holiday, they tell me a crew will be at the house in the next 90 minutes. So we went about our day. Had breakfast, back to the house to learn that the problem was clearly closer to the street and was gonna require heavy equipment.

I was able to grab the last two hotel rooms available in the Princeton area and we had a plan. The spatchcocked turkey went in the oven and we set the table. After dinner, we continued the plan with dessert at our friends Amy and Jonathan's who also stopped by to pick up dozens of wet and gross towels and bathroom rugs to wash at their house!

Our neighbors, the Shahs and Craffords (yes, "Joe the Neighbor") offered bathrooms and any other help we needed as they saw multiple trucks showing up at the house.

Side note, dessert was made by our daughter Elizabeth's good friend Rena White, wow, almost made us forget the problem at the house. One night in a local hotel and by noon Friday the water and plumbing were back in action.

So it took a village and some skilled workers to get the holiday back on track and we are truly grateful for the help, friendship, and professionalism of everyone involved.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Bill Spadea. Any opinions expressed are Bill's own. Bill Spadea is on the air weekdays from 6 to 10 a.m., talkin’ Jersey, taking your calls at 1-800-283-1015.

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