It all started with my bathroom sink. I noticed that it was draining slowly, and that I could pull out the pop-up stopper. It was no longer attached to the lever that raised and lowered it. A look into the cabinet below the sink revealed that the ball socket and lever had become loose, freeing the stopper to be removed.

The bigger problem was that it also resulted in water escaping through the seal, so the vanity had a good bit of water in it. You know, the vanity that holds spare medicines, sunscreen, cleaning supplies—the one you’ve been meaning to clean out for a long time. And now I had that cleaning opportunity at the least opportune time.

My wife helped with the cleanup and drying of wet contents. I then proceeded to clean out the drain without removing the sink trap. I tried to remove the trap, but the plastic, threaded locknuts were frozen. I'd experienced this issue before and ended up breaking the plastic pipe because I torqued the nuts too hard.

Fortunately, all is good now and the vanity is also clean. And I had a chance to think about my personal work processes and work systems.

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