No flushing on Sundays

It was a pretty non-blog weekend. The basketball team I coach, won another game. I did laundry. Oh, and I broke the toilet.
Sunday morning, I tried to flush and the plastic handle thing that raises the flapper, broke off. So when I pressed the handle, nothing happened.
This prompted me to wake up ZooDad so he could investigate the cause of the non-flushing toilet. (I manage most of the household. I do not handle plumbing, electrical, or computer issues.)
ZooDad determined the issue and asked me to pick up a toilet handle kit when I went out. Notice that was a "when" and not an "if." I tend to run all over on Sundays. It is the one day I can go store hopping without the ZooBoys. Right at lunch, I decided that I needed to cross the river and head over to the Target in the next state.
Wow...that sounds odd of me. Let me explain. We live three miles from this river/state line. There is a town on the other side of the river, in this other state that shares the same name as my town. This town is just an extension of my town. It is no big deal to go from one state to the other. In fact, when I was in high school in the other state...I would drive to my current state for breakfast each morning before heading to school.

Any way, I needed to go to Target to get exchange a broken present that J got for his birthday and my Target was all out that item.
I got to that Target at 12:45 and found it closed. The sign said that it would not open until 1:30. It was only then that I remembered the Sunday Blue Laws.
geesh
I called ZooDad to let him know that I wouldn't even get in the door for another 45 minutes. He reminded me about the toilet handle so I went across the street to the Super Wal-Mart (which was open) to get the handle and grab a book to read while I waited for Target to open. By the time I got to the check out, I had picked up a half dozen odd items. My cashier rang up my purchases except the toilet handle.
She said, "You can't buy this yet."

I stared at her for a least three seconds before asking why.

It seems that the state's Blue Laws forbid the purchase of toilet handles before 1:30 pm on Sundays. Toilet handles are hardware and apparently no hardware purchases are past of the Blue Laws that forbid alcohol purchases on Sunday. It was 1:10 pm.

That's right....even if it is an emergency...you'll just have to wait until 1:30 like everybody else. State law does not prevent a store from opening before the stated time. They just can't sell certain things until after 1:30 pm. Toilet handles are apparently on that list of Sunday contraband.

Ironically, due to this county's status as a tourist location, I could have ordered a beer at Applebee's at 11:30 am but heaven forbid if I'd like to flush before 1:30.

Thoughts of "Music Man" entered my head.
Ya got trouble, folks!
Right here in River City!
Trouble with a capital "T"
And that rhymes with "P"
And that stands for pool!