It's amazing how many things in daily life require water. There are the obvious things like going to the bathroom, taking a shower, washing dishes, and doing laundry. Then there are the things we, or at least I, never really give much thought like moping the floor or cleaning the bathroom.
When I was much younger, my sisters and I spent the summers in Pennsylvania with our dad. For the first few summers we stayed in the "Big House" which had no pluming. In the mornings my dad would walk down to the stream in front of the house and fill a wash tub with water which we would use to brush our teeth and wash our faces. During the day we would go to my grandma and grandpa's house to use the bathroom and take showers. At night, there was an out house and when we were too scared to venture out into the pitch black country night there was a white pail. More often than not, we used the white pail. ( I just realised who emptied that pail. My dad is even more of a hero than I thought!) All in all, it wasn't such a hard life and the existence or nonexistence of running water didn't seem to bother us too much. We were kids and didn't have to worry about laundry, dishes, floor moping or bathroom cleaning.
This week our water is out due to a serious sewage issue. The pipe connecting us to the main line was accidentally dug up several months ago when neighbors built another line to connect them to the city line. It's taken this long for the pipe to back up enough for anyone to notice there was a problem. The plumbers and city workers have spent the last 3 days trying to decide how to fix the problem. Option A would include reconnecting our line to the neighbors which connects to the city. This was apparently the agreement that was made between the two owners 20 years ago. It may or may not be an option now depending on city regulations. Option B requires about $34,000, the closure of two lanes of traffic on the street beside us, and a minimum of a week with no water so that another main line can be built from the city to us. I don't really care which option is chosen as long as the end result is running water.
In the mean time we're staying at one of those Inn & Suite places that have a nice little kitchen along with a bed or two. It's very exciting for Erin who loves any excuse to stay anywhere other than our house. It's a little less exciting for David and I who have to worry about the dogs and cats as well as making sure we have everything from this place that we may need at the other place. Luckily it's a short drive and something forgotten is easily gotten. I tried to convince my boss that a condo in Hawaii is a viable option, but had no luck. I'm grateful this stay is on the companies dime and not ours.
3 comments:
It is funny, isn't it, just how much we take for granted.
Hope the issue is resolved soon so you can get back to normal living.
Hang in there, buddy!
I'm glad that you didn't have a pipe backflow problem that would have been a sewage back up into the house. Those are just horrible. Burn down the house horrible.
The closest I have come to living without water (that I wasn't on a runaway stint) was when I was living with Cheri's family in North Idaho. The house had running pond water that was ok for bathing etc, but any water for cooking or drinking or ingestion had to be gotten in Heron, a few miles away. When the pond got low, we had to get inventive with flushing (buckets) and showering (in town or the RV)
We'd pack up the Gallon Milk Jugs and drive to the water, and fill em up and drive back.
We didn't die, but one of the best days was when the well was dug. I still remember the smell of the dirt as it came up from deep underground, for some reason, I really wanted to BITE it. Isn't that wierd?
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