My accountant Sandra and her husband came over for dinner last night and she was talking about tax filing season this year when their septic system developed a clog that the roto-rooter guy tried to find but failed, in the meantime breaking some pipes and refusing to fix them.

They ended up having to get the septic vault dug up and clean-outs installed. The contractor's wife told her on the phone "you'll really like Bob, the guy we're sending out -- he really knows his shit about septic."

When they finally got the job done the owner's wife came to inspect the job. She was a little tiny blonde woman, and after she put on a dust mask and gloves, her husband lowered her into the cleaned-out vault. She was standing on a large rake thing, and he lowered it with a rope, hand over hand.

"I was so surprised she did that - she looked so clean!"

We were surprised that they considered it safe to go down into an confined space like that without respiratory gear or rescue equipment. Gases in those atmospheres can kill you in seconds, and any would-be rescuers who don't know what they are doing.

Remember Erma Bombeck's book "The Grass is Always Greener Over The Septic Tank?