Getting Into A “Flow” State — Hal Style
Despite where you come from or where you reside, there are certain things that are somewhat “universal” among us all — and many are bathroom related. In this case, in another installment of “My Life As A Hal”, I present one such universal issue and two very creative solutions for the customer in question:
When I heard that familiar noise on my iPhone indicating an inbound customer request, I admit I did not expect the texts that followed. However, I immediately understood why it is important to respond quickly to any incoming requests!
The dire request showed up around 11:30 PM EST. And the customer just cut to the chase as to what they needed:
Customer: “Hey Hal! This is REALLY urgent! I am at my new girlfriend’s house and I clogged her toilet — but there is NO plunger anywhere! She’s asleep but I need to find a way to unclog this toilet without a plunger. I need help here. This is really embarrassing. Any ideas?”
Hal (aka Me): “You’ve come to the right place! Give me just a moment to curate a couple of ideas for you that use household items to get the job done.”
Customer: “Please hurry! I really don’t want her to see this! We’ve only been dating for two weeks and it’s going really great, so I don’t want this to screw up our momentum, ya know? It’s just too embarrassing!”
Within seconds I was scouring the Internet for a DIY solution that the customer could act on quickly and that didn’t require specialty or oddball items to get the job done. I found what I thought may be ideal for this situation, so I went to work:
Hal: “Can you find some liquid dish soap (the more the better!) and can you heat up some water in her microwave? It doesn’t need to be boiling hot so you can quietly carry it to the toilet, but the hotter, the better. And if she is one of those people who uses a bath bomb in her bath, that could also assist the effort, but it’s not necessary to have. We’re using these to lubricate the bowl and the pipes.”
Customer: “Yes! She has both of those things and I can turn off the microwave before it chirps to make sure I can heat up the water quietly.”
Hal: “OK. Perfect. First dump about HALF of a bottle of liquid dish soap, like Dawn, into the toilet. If you can find a ‘bath bomb’, drop that in if you have it. Next, if the super gross flood water in the bowl is low enough now, heat up a large container of water in the microwave next while the liquid soap does its job.”
Customer: “Yes! OK. I put in a ton of the liquid soap. But I can’t find a bath bomb. When do I add the hot water?”
Hal: “Let’s add it now, since the next step is that we will need to wait 15 minutes for this to work.”
Customer: “OK, Hal. Now we wait. Don’t go anywhere on me. I REALLY need this to work!!”
Fifteen minutes pass and now we’re at the critical point in this dilemma:
Hal: “Let me know if you see the water level going down, since that would be a good sign.”
Customer: “Yes, Hal. It’s WAY down now. It’s almost like there’s very little water in the bowl at this point.”
Hal: “Perfect! Let’s flush it now and see how it worked.”
Customer: “Hal! You did it! I can’t believe this worked! And she’s still fast asleep! You really saved my night here. This is awesome!!”
Hal: “Perfect! Great to hear! And to top it all off, I have another cool suggestion that you can use for next time — wherever you are. Check out Amazon or eBay for what’s called a Pongtu Toilet Plunger Sticker. It’s completely portable and folds up in a backpack easily. If this happens again, you just pull the sticker out, cover the entire open area of the toilet under the lid, and the pressure it creates, like a soft balloon, will allow you to push down on the sticker covering the bowl. After about 3–5 gentle pushes, the toilet will flush! You can find them here: https://amzn.to/30cGzuw and they aren’t too expensive to buy either. It also beats buying a plunger and trying to stash it somewhere she won’t see it!”
Customer: “You are a genius! I love that idea, since it can travel with me without the embarrassment of the whole “plunger” thing. Hal, you have def earned my ongoing business on this one. Cheers!”
And so, as night falls and our hero in this story cuddles with his new girlfriend after a successful DIY process to keep her toilet clean of any backup, he now has another solution that he can use ‘on the fly’ if the situation were to ever recur.
I must admit, when I discovered those cool Japanese plunger stickers, I was amazed at how easily and how well they worked once I bought a set myself. Their YouTube video link really sold me on how efficient and disposable the whole sticker idea was — and it prevents having to clean a grody looking plunger with all that bacteria teeming all over it.
What can I say? Life as a “Hal” is prone to all kinds of requests. But when life hits you with a new problem to solve, don’t panic — Just reach for the Hal Personal Assistant app and let Hal do the work for you!
