Quote: Easy As 1, 2, 3.

I'm no dumbass, I swear. But there's nothing "easy" about 1, 2, 3. It's as easy as 1, 2, 3? Who came up with that? I can tell you this; it wasn't a guy with one, two, THREE plugged downspouts during a torrential downpour.

The Toronto area was just hit with an F2 Tornado yesterday, killing an 11-year-old boy, destroying an entire printing plant and numerous houses. The storms in southern Ontario have been nothing short of brutal this summer. Intense lightning storms, flash flooding, and yeah - tornadii! (That's plural for "tornadoes" in case anyone was wondering)

When I noticed my eaves couldn't handle the water flowing off the roof, I decided I had to solve the problem before the sagging trough ripped right off the house. I've always been angry that my battery-operated army surplus water pump used for cleaning my aquarium quit on me. But let it be known from this day forward, I am no longer angry I had to replace it with a ridiculous hand-held manual vacuum pressure type unit.

While the rain pounded the crap out of our new shingles (if shingles did indeed have crap inside of them), I did the following: One, I ran upstairs and grabbed the aquarium pump from the aquarium cabinet; Two, I ran out into the storm and rammed the pump sideways into the eavestrough; Three, I sucked on the end creating a vacuum, as though I were siphoning gas out of my neighbour's Saturn.

Which I've never done. To anyone's knowledge.

It was, well, as easy as 1, 2, 3. The siphoning action, thanks to science, pulled the water out of the eaves. The flexible tubing directed the water down to the front steps. It was much preferable to the waterfall pouring over the edge of the eaves onto the cars parked beneath it.

In less than 5 minutes, the entire eavestrough was drained of water. And when the storm ended, I cleaned out the clogged downspout. Hmm... Easy as 1, 2, 3? Yeah, I guess it was!