Thursday, July 29, 2010

Water, water everywhere! But none to clear the stink...

Over the last four days, we have been blessed by God with about a gozillion inches of rain (I think that's something like .65 gozillion meters in metric stuff).  And, we certainly are grateful to The Good Lord for it!  We have had an awfully dry spell here in NW Louisiana, and it was a powerfully refreshing time.

So, there is water everywhere here at Andy's Place (plus grass that is about .65 gozillion meters tall that badly needs to be cut.)

Just sayin'...

This morning, I noticed a bunch of big old City Trucks, and heavy equipment movers coming down the street.  This is not all that unusual, as it happens regularly because we live on a street that butts up to a levee of The Red River, and requires much maintenance.  Good on 'em.

Just sayin'...

However, about noon, I went outside to get the mail and here comes my buddy, our postal carrier.  He hands me the mail, and says, "Hey man!  You know they just cut your water off, don't you?"

I replied, "Naw, I didn't know that."  My buddy, our postal carrier said, "Yeah, they're working on the water lines.  Last week they were doing this over on the next street.  And, the water was off for three days.  I sure hope you're not out of water for three days."

I am pretty sure that I looked something like Casper the Friendly Ghost when I heard that.  Sure enough, I went back inside with my mail, flipped on the water in the kitchen sink...NOTHING!  Okay, so that's cool.  I know that maintenance, replacement of lines, etc. must be done from time to time.  And, we have had the water off in the past for a few hours.

That was about noon.  I alerted all the neighbors that they did not have any running water.  About 2 pm, a tiny trickle began to flow, so my survivalist skills/instincts kicked in, and I filled up available containers, flushed the toilets, and let them fill.  Then, the flow of water in the sink got stronger, with much greater pressure.

I'm figuring, "Cool."  Problem solved.  NOT!

About 30 minutes later, it all shut back down.  And, not one single drop has flowed since.  So, about 6:15 pm I walk down the street to the scene of the crime, and this is what I see.


Well, the good news is that it was 6:15 pm, and the City Water Department fellows are still on the job.

I am writing this at 6:50 pm, and there is still no running water, only air spewing from the faucet I left open.

Unfortunately, FDIL who lives next door has company coming tomorrow.  I told her that if worse comes to worse, we can just rent a Motel room for them.  That way we can all have a place to go wash off the stink...and we can swim in the Motel pool while we're at it.

Fortunately, I am a water hoarder.  I always keep a big old 5 gallon bottle filled with water.  Just in case.  And, we have a British Berkfeld pour-through water filter that purifies everything for drinking.

But, it's the "BATHING" deal that bums me out. 

I stink.  

I don't mind the potties not flushing so much, because we've got real lids to shut down on them.  But,  I don't have a lid over me.  And, I sure am extremely happy that I was too lazy to go cut grass at my old deceased widow lady's house today.  Then, I would really stink.

Really.

Just sayin'...

Maybe I'll go over to The Mrs. In-Law's place and get cleaned up.  Maybe.

You know, we really do take WAY too much for granted.  I mean, junk like a constant supply of running water.  You don't really appreciate it until it's cut off.

Just sayin'...

8 comments:

  1. Nothing worse than the water being off! Hope they get it up before bedtime.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks, Jimbo!

    Actually (and I ain't telling you anything you don't know) there are worse things.

    HA! As I'm typing this, the water is a'flowin'.

    Better go fill up the jugs, just in case...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Scratch that! It ran for about 30 seconds.

    Back off.

    Sigh...

    ReplyDelete
  4. I can dispense with the bathing for a while, resorting to washcloth bathing if necessary to cut down on the underarm BO, but not being able to flush toilets really irks me. Besides, someone in the house always manages to end up with explosive diarrhea just when the commodes decide to stop working.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Like you, I keep several gallons of water on standby. Actually, last time they cut the water off for a period of time, we bought several jugs of gallons of water from the Winn-Dixie. We still have most of them left. And will keep them for when something like what you're going through happens to us again.

    Sounds like a great opportunity for a romantic night out at an area hotel. Shower, dinner, shower, etc. Hmmm. Now I'm wishing our water would go out.

    ReplyDelete
  6. You don't really appreciate it until it's cut off.

    Forgive me. But you know I hadda do it.

    I keep five gallons of emergency water on hand, too. We lose water a couple o' three times a year here in Beautiful La Hacienda Trailer Park.

    I read your update and I hope things get back to normal, stat.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Having Mississippi River water as the source for our city water, we keep 4 or 5 Kentwood jugs on hand for drinking purposes (I think it might just be a mental image thing, but the Kentwood does taste better!). But I wouldn't use that to power the potties! Isn't it weired how your entire focus goes to what you're missing when it goes away? Our 4 hour power outage last weekend left us bored and pacing.

    Sorry, Andy. It's good to see that the water folks are working on the problem, though. And it's good to note that they have the requisite number of watcher-workers -- you know, the guys who sit or stand around and watch the one guy doing the work.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thanks to all for the good wishes. It came back on about 1:30 am.

    I'll bet those guys were ready to get home. Good on 'em.

    Thanks for the video, Buck! Yeah, I knew you hadda. Nyuk...

    ReplyDelete

Don't cuss nobody out, okay?