Its been in there for about a week. I don’t know how it keeps from going on down the pipes, it just lays in that crook at the bottom. I just couldn’t bring myself to reach in there and get it out.
Anyone got any suggestions?
I was under the impression the term was “spending a penny”…
Four suggestions. Pick one.
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Call a plumber. Explain to him what the problem is. Hours later, he will come to your home. He will get the nickel out for you. It will take him, at most, 10 seconds. He will charge you, at a minimum, probably at least $40 for this, depending on where you live. If he is a good plumber, he will keep a straight face, because humiliating the customer by laughing hysterically in his face is bad for business. You can put it on your VISA card, although he will probably take a check.
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Get a pair of BBQ tongs. Fish around with that.
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Reach in there yourself. Save yourself 40 bucks. Wash your hands off good with soap and hot water afterwards. Potties aren’t really THAT dirty, not if it’s not totally full of excrement at the time you’re going diving. I take it you’ve never had to sozzle a poopie diaper in the potty and lost your grip and had to retrieve it? They say you can get used to anything.
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If all else fails, go to a coin dealer. Give him $150 for an American gold Double Eagle (or whatever the going rate is). Bring the Double Eagle home. Drop it into the potty, next to the nickel.
Now go in after both of them. Like the Polack said, when he dropped a 20 dollar bill down the privy hole, and his friend said, “Geez, whadja do that for?”, and the Polack said, “Well, just now I dropped a dollar bill down there by accident, but you don’t think I’m going down there just for a lousy buck?”
Before inflation(1975), I heard that joke about throwing an additional quarter into the toilet"…but for a quarter…"
P.S. $400=going rate for double eagle today.
You could just leave it in there–makes an interesting conversation piece, especially if people you don’t know well use your bathroom.
** aha, are you using it for target practice?? **
This could be a thread, ‘what’s the weirdest thing you’ve dropped in the commode and did you get it out’? My youngest son Billy, and I went out to eat this afternoon. He’s not talkative like his brother OR me, so I was quite surprised when he brought up having dropped something in the toilet.
I asked him what it was and he uses a little hook type device to floss. THAT’s what he had dropped. I asked him if he got it out, and I was laughing at this picture anyway. He looks slightly embarrassed and says, ‘no I put some wet toilet paper on top of it and flushed it away.’ Then he is looking very concerned, because he knows we have a septic tank that has to be emptied and we have a guy who does it, who is forever commenting on WHAT is in the tank. I’ve not figured out a polite way to say, ‘DON’T TELL ME!’
Anyway, Billy is still looking troubled, ‘Will Mr. Davis find it??’ I just laughed and said he’d never find it.
::::::::::::::crossing fingers::::::::::::::::::::::::
A late suggestion: Offer a local lad a share of anything he finds in all of your toilets. No doubt he will value your follow-up lecture on hygiene.
Haven’t you heard of rubber gloves ?
notthemama, I have dunked many a diaper in my day, I never knew there was a name for the process. Sozzle, hmmmm… yep, I like it !
Aha, the answer is simple: an all expenses paid trip for Shirley down to your neck of the woods and I shall bite the bullet/ fall on the grenade for you and stick my hand down there.
(Just did it a couple of days ago rescuing a matchbox car from the pipes. I’ve a toddler in residence.)
Shirley come on down. Just consider me your tidy bowel man. 
get a wastpaperbasket, bucket or something like it. Fill it with water, and pour it down the toilet, it should get a better current going than just flushing, and with a bit of luck, you should lose the nickel. I don’t think it would clog anything, and… it’s just a nickel.
If the worst prospect to come your way so far is reaching into a flushed toilet to pick up a nickle, you should count yourself very fortunate. Far, far more disgusting and “icky” things you must do will undoubtedly arise eventually, through accident or illness, your own or others’. I suggest you start toughening up now. Steel your nerve. (It’s only a porcelain bowl, not a living predator.) Reach in. Pick up the nickle. Throw it away if it is too revolting for you to spend even after washing it. Go to the sink and wash your hands with soap, as far up as the water touched, or to your elbows if you want to be extra safe. Pat yourself on the back for being such a brave little soldier.
I can’t use those traditional little scrubby brushes on our toilet because of our hard and rusty water; I have to get in there with a scrub brush and do it at close range. I do this every week or two, and when I’m done I wash thoroughly and go on to the next task at hand. I have never suffered any ill effects, mental or physical, nor do I expect to. You won’t either.
I know I’ll regret asking this, but HOW did it get down there?
This thread topic segues nicely into something I was wondering about recently:
I was in the airport last week (in Detroit) and had the occasion to use the restroom. The urinals in the restroom didn’t have those fancy plastic splashguards at the bottom; as a matter of fact you could look straight down into the P-trap below the urinals. Surprisingly enough (at least to me) the pipe was full of change! Maybe a dollars worth of pennies and nickels!
So…who throws these in? Do people assume the urinal is like a wishing well, and their wish for a safe flight will come true? Is there a tradition at work here? And why haven’t I heard of it before?
Breckenshire: It fell off the shelf from above.
Zut this is true. In some airports they put a coin in the urinals to give the patrons something to aim at. The threory is that it helps keep the floors cleaner from urine and cuts down on staff duties.
No really!
Flush your Depends. That should push it along. Either that or you will get a reson to call the plumber that he won’t smirk at.
aha posts the following plausible theory:
That might be a reasonable explanation, but what I saw wasn’t just a single coin, it was a handful (on the order of twenty in each). And they were down in the trap under three inches or so of water, so they’d be less (ahem) fun to aim at than one coin right out in the open.
Perhaps, given Detroit Metro’s history of bumbling what should be simple tasks, this is the homegrown version of your theory? (Although I still like the image of a line of businessmen each pitching a penny into the pot for good luck.)
Come on, zut–you’ve never seen a pay-toilet before?
Hmmm… I think we need an offical SDMB plumber.
Aha has had a nickel in his toilet for over a week, and poor Libby has had a bead in her drain, practically forever.
Hmmm… I think we need an offical SDMB plumber.
Aha has had a nickel in his toilet for over a week, and poor Libby has had a bead in her drain, practically forever.