The odd in-ground tank in the back yard for a while was about as mysterious as that hatch on "Lost."
I only witnessed it come to life once, as indicated by a funny red light on a nearby outside wall of the house. It happened during the great rains of October 2006, so I assumed it had something to do with rising water.
In a way, it kind of did, but not the kind of fluid one would swim in or drink.
Every catastrophe comes with its mindless, overwhelming array of logistical problems, and the grinder became Logistical Problem No. 1 for us during Hurricane Ike's aftermath.
After Hurricane Rita, it was the
weatherhead that had the No. 1 title. A tree took it out, and a power company won't hook up a customer with a busted weather head. With Florida Power and Light coming up the street, I desperately tried to call electricians, but they all had weeks-long waiting lists - and I needed one in 20 minutes.
I called a contractor who stuck his card in the front door and told him my home-repair job was his if he could deploy an electrician immediately. One arrived 15 minutes later, and power to the home was on that night.
Ike took out our weather head again. The trusty old contractor had the new
weatherhead up the next day.
Later that day, I found out what a grinder does. It works as a combination sink disposal and sewage lift station. When waste reaches a certain level in the tank, the grinding and pumping begin, pushing the waste to the sewer system, which is slightly uphill.
No electricity means no grinder. And no grinder ... well ...
So that forced an entry into the regionwide generator scramble, and I needed a big one to handle that 220-volt grinder.
The monster generator brought home for the job didn't work. A replacement was on the scene the next morning, but it didn't come with was needed to hook the generator into the breaker box. The grinder couldn't just be plugged directly into the generator.
To hook the generator into the box, a 10/4 cable and a special four-prong plug were needed. Those cables and plugs become gold after an electricity-cutting disaster. It took a lot of craziness and scampering around to acquire those items.
A neighbor and I tried - and failed - to hook the generator into the box. While servicing the generator that evening, I smelled something foul and looked over in horror to see the Old Faithful of raw sewage pouring out of the grinder tank's top.
That was it. No more sewage. Any more flushing would result in a back up into the house.
The next morning, I placed a desperate call to the trusty contractor, who immediately came over, hooked up the generator and got the grinder going again. When it's time to grind, everything else has to be shut down as the generator strains to handle that 220-volt grinder motor.
But the grinder adventure hasn't ended. When the power crew comes to attach the house to the main power line, it will disconnect the generator, and a race against time begins. There's only so much room in that grinder tank. The power needs to come on not long after the reconnection, or else.
Furthermore, I need some lime, and not the kind you squeeze into a Corona bottle. There needs to be a reduction of fumes and
biohazard dangers around the grinder top, but a trip to various stores around the city today during the lunch hour proved futile.
Maybe I'll hammer a few Coronas tonight while I brainstorm ways to find some lime.
