Odd O'blography

Water, Water, Sorta, Kinda

We're in the second day of our emergency water supply situation. It started on Saturday afternoon when the pressure dropped significantly. Then the water company trucks came and the pressure dropped to zero. Without warning. No chance to fill buckets, bottles, or pans.

It seems the main broke under a driveway at the end of the street. On a Saturday. Labor Day weekend. The water company did work all night Saturday, so they deserve credit for trying. However, they don't yet get credit for succeeding. Modern day fittings and gaskets don't quite fit the 1970's pipes, and they gave up on getting the leak sealed on Sunday morning. They have to source new/old fittings, or make an adapter, or who knows what?

Sunday afternoon was spent laying a bright blue fire hose up the street from a hydrant about a block away. A tangle of fittings on the end of the firehose splits into three different garden hoses. Each of these heads a different direction along the street. One of them goes to our neighbors house where it splits again at their outside faucet. That garden hose runs through the side yard to our house, and yep, splits again to run yet another garden hose to our other neighbor's house. Water is now running backwards into the house from our outside faucet. We got limited water pressure back in time for Sunday supper. Three houses being supplied by a single garden hose is tolerable, but annoying.

I know, these are first world problems. We still have relatively clean, pure water dribbling out of the taps. The 24 hours of no water made me think about all the people in the world who do without every day. I was surprised by how quickly, and by how much I missed the water. The worst part is not being able to flush toilets. Second worst is not being able to wash hands after not being able to flush. Fortunately, we do have a case of bottled water for emergencies. It goes quickly when used for washing as well as drinking.

The trucks are back today . . .