WE HAVE WATER!!!

Last night I was,um, checking out the facilities, um, checking out the  throne room, um, ah heck!  I had to pee in the middle of the night, as usual! and out of habit just hit the flush handle and to my delight it FLUSHED!  The water was  at last after two long days and nights that felt more like years.  And the air started the slow journey down to a comfortable level from the 96F that was showing on mt thermostat when I checked last night, a very good thing since we started back into another heat advisory today.  We still have to boil the water before using it for at least 24 more hours, but that’s easy enough to do.  It has the added benefit of adding moisture to our otherwise desertlike dry air.

Today turned out to be my day to see or hear from several family members also.  I always visit my aunt on Wednesday and my cousin is usually there as well, but today while we were talking my son came strolling down the hall.  I’m not sure which of us was more surprised, but he stopped for a short visit before heading back out to the farm.  His uncle and half owner of the farm now lives at the same home as my aunt, and Don had just dropped him off after a visit to the farm that Don and Mike run now, with their step-mom taking care of the books for them.  Altogether a winning situation for everyone — with the possible exception of accident prone Mike!  He should be wrapped in bubble wrap and protected from himself — very much like his accident prone mom!  That would be me!

 

Another Thing You Miss

AIR CONDITIONING!!!  Ours is tied in with the water system,  and when the water main went so did the air.  My sweet baby boy, now no longer a baby to anyone but me brought me some water last night along with a fan and an invitation to spend the time without water and air with him.  A nice invitation, but I’m not a very good house guest, especially at night.  I do a lot of roaming around during the night when sleep eludes me and it just wouldn’t be a good idea to keep them awake wondering what I was doing next.  So, I kept the fan on, called the bus to take me out to an air conditioned place today,   and am still enduring.  The water main is fixed but for some reason known only to the powers that be here in the building we still have no water or air.  Temps have cooled today though so  things are better.

I was tooling around one of the stores I decided to visit today during my time out and while spending a few minutes examining a display it seems I took one of my “power naps”.  Not sure how long it lasted, but I woke to see a gentleman in front of me with a concerned look on his face, calling “Ma’am Ma’am, are you okay”?  Another employee was beside him with a device in her hand trying to contact emergency for help for the me, but I assured them everything was fine, just a bad night without much sleep due to lack of a/c and a sudden need for a nap. Since I was able to tell them what day it was and when I was born they were okay with it and I decided it was time to go ahead and check out my 3 bottles of glue and move on to the next store.  I managed to remain awake in that one and stayed until the phone rang a few times with the building news that we should be sure all the faucets were turned off.  Since I wasn’t sure about mine it seemed like a good time to call the bus to bring me home for the day.  So I went thru the checkout there, paid for my fat quarter fabric which really isn’t a quarter of a yard at all, and came home.  It is cooler out now, but almost time for them to leave for the day and still no air or water, but not too bad.  That’s okay, I can cope with anything since I’ve had a few power naps today already and it cools off during the night.  I have water, cherry cokes and ice cream, and what more does anyone need?

Things You Don’t Miss

At least you don’t miss them until they are no longer there when you want them.  Like the ability to turn the faucet on and have water pour forth in abundance.  Early this morning my water went away as I was rinsing the soap off my hands.  The bright spot was that it dribbled out long enough to get rid of all of the soap residue,  a very fortunate plus since I had been doing some greasy cleanup in the kitchen, making up for a few days of forced inactivity due to an infection somewhere inside that caused my temperature to rise.  So, while I am so used to taking water for granted, today I count as a very huge blessing the fact that I have plenty of bottled water on hand for drinking and for a limited amount of cooking.  No pasta probably, but pasta, while delicious is not necessary for life (I can say that because I am English/Irish/German ancestry).  I also have a fridge and freezer filled with burgoo, potato salad, and sandwich fixins!  

This is actually my second water main break since I moved to town.  The first one wasn’t quite as conveniently placed as this one.  I was living in a house that time and had a guest for a few days, it was Sunday morning and to top it all off, I was in the shower covered completely by the huge handful of shampoo and shower gel I had decided was absolutely necessary that morning.  To be honest, I just squeezed the tube too hard and half the contents squirted out on me so not being wasteful I had to bring up the biggest bunch of soap bubbles you can imagine!  When totally certain I was completely soaped, scrubbed, bubbled and shampooed to perfection I turned the faucet back on, and to my absolute horror, nothing happened!  Not a single cupful of extra water anywhere in the house.  I didn’t even have a wet washcloth, since I prefer the scrubby on a stick that I’ve used for years — no, no, not the same one–I change them out regularly for, well, just fill in the blanks there on your own.  It’s amazing how sticky soap that is only toweled off can leave a person feeling.  Especially soap that has been so liberally applied.

My guest had awakened by the time I left the bathroom and she made a remark about how stiff my hair was, then said she was going to take the shower she had been looking forward to for almost an hour after my moving around woke her.  A little demon almost made me let her try it and possibly soap up before she realized the predicament, but the angel emerged in time to let her know that there was no water, no way of cooking much for breakfast, no coffee — her drink, mine being cherry coke, and no hope of that shower.  We tried phoning some restaurants in the off chance there would be one with some actual food for sale, but of course, no one was open for business that day.  Seems we never think about all the uses for water until it’s gone, or at least I hadn’t, until it is no longer there.

I sometimes make lists of things to be thankful for, and on that fateful Sunday morning water was placed at the top of that list.  That particular afternoon the National Guard trucked in several tankers of water and we were told to come to the places they were dispensing it, bringing our buckets, jugs, jars and whatever else we could pack up to hold this wonderful life giving nectar.  Jane had elected to remain with me for the duration, even though she could have driven off at any time.  We found as many containers as we could pack in the trunk of my car and drove to the station for our first of many trips to fill them, empty them in the bathtub, sinks, and every other pot, pan, pitcher and other container that could be found.  I was finally able to rinse the soap off, drench my pruny skin with lotion, and feel human again and Jane elected a sponge bath rather than dirty up our tub full of fresh, clean water!