A garden neighbor’s plot a few days ago. It is only a matter of weeks now. Granted, winter weeks, so you know, the whole frozen thing but we do have daffodil shoots on the rise. A few more weeks to see substantial crocus shoots. I did notice yesterday the beautiful white geometric camellias down on the next block are starting to bud, as are the rhododendrons.
Nature is, as always, on the move.
The weird heavy footed noisy upstairs neighbors did move out, and they are prepping the place for new tenants, painting and the like so I wasn’t surprised a few days back to get a water turn off notice. I filled up a big bucket in the tub and other vessels in the kitchen and was good to go. If they turned it off it must have been while I was teaching and so it had no impact. I then used that water for various things.
Yesterday then I again wasn’t surprised to get another water turn off notice as I figured they were continuing the repairs upstairs or whatever and so I went to fill up my bucket and oh gosh, the water came out brown! Like, seriously brown.
I went back and looked at the turn off notice. Oh. A water main break down about three blocks away. I went online to see if there was a timeline or notification. Apparently there had been a break down there early last week but nothing current. (I miss when you could check Twitter for this sort of thing.)
There was a phone number in the turn off notice and I ended up talking to two lovely real and knowledgeable women about my water. It turns out that what I was getting was sediment that had settled in the pipes over time that got stirred up by the break. I was not to drink it even if I boiled it until it cleared which could be not until this morning. I asked her if the gym was affected (so I could take a shower) and she said to call them and ask.
In my odd assortment of emergency supplies I had a couple of gallons of water thank goodness. I was to check every hour to see if it was clearing and not to use hot water as it would pull sediment into the hot water heater. Out to check the mail I ended up talking to one of my not noisy and annoying upstairs neighbors and the sediment wasn’t getting up that high. Interesting.
The water did start to clear around the time I went to bed and is fine this morning.
I am so grateful to the crews out there working all day and those lovely women on the phone. I am grateful for local responsive efficient government. (Our new city council is a bit of a mess, but in a we are seriously trying to figure this out and help people way.)
This is not something I can say for our Federal government, no matter how dedicated our local representees to it are. How can we be shocked anymore after last year? And yet we are. The news has been shocking. Again, the cruelty astonishes me. Are there that many damaged people, so hungry to take out their perceived victimization out on others when given the means?
Apparently so.
What have we wrought?
It is possible to be grateful at the same time as one is freaking out. This is my practice today.
To take care of what needs to be taken care of, (including preparing for yet another long string of meetings, so many meetings, in the next week) being grateful for the basics that I do enjoy including my health and bearing witness to the horrors that are currently abounding.
If Margaret Atwood can be hopeful, (and she is) so can I. (I finished listening to her astonishing detailed memoir and a couple of interviews with her this last week.)
I am thinking of hope as a rope I am holding onto to make my way through these treacherous and eerily pedestrian times.
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