Friday, May 27, 2011

Water water, everywhere, and not a drop to drink


So I’ve been holed up at the lake cabin for the last few weeks, and while it was raining for the first 10 days I was here, my plumbing has been hit or miss. After 2 visits from the plumber (and 1 by the well guy) I finally had something flowing out of all my taps…2 days later, it’s back to a trickle. The moral of the story here is, I need my water simplified here... Sure, I can count on 2 hands my water fixtures (kitchen sink, dishwasher, washing machine, bathroom sink, tub/shower, toilet, baseboard forced hot water heaters) but when something goes wrong, I have no idea how to fix it other than calling Jon the plumber over and handing over a check. My 7th grade industrial arts education did not adequately prepare me for this.

I’m proud that I was able to live for 2 weeks without running water (to answer the inevitable questions: bottled water for drinking/cooking, laundry at the Laundromat, shower at the gym, flush the toilet with buckets of lake water). But the best way to simplify is to be able to handle things yourself without having to call in the cavalry. It’s also a (very small scale) reminder that millions of people don’t have access to clean and safe drinking water and how important it is to keep water supplies clean and free of pollutants.