Meeting at the Watering Hole

Our water outage saga continues. It has been almost two weeks since it all began.

Our water has been off, then back on, then off again. Then on again. Off again. On again. Again and again and again. 

I found the green tag deeming our water to be safe to drink three days ago. All our spare water jugs were replenished with safe drinking water and our back up water reserves were full.

Then the water went out last night. And stayed off. 

I have discovered one thing during our water shortage. It takes 8 litres of water to flush our toilet. I emptied two, 4 litre water jugs this morning to do just that. Emptying that much water at one time made me feel a little vulnerable so I decided to take a stroll down the block and utilize the safe water supply (up to this point, I had been refilling our jugs at my aunt's but had no plans to go there today).

As I made my way to the water trailer and back, I spoke with three (yes!!! three!!!) different people. 

First was a City employee (who is working today fighting with this water dilemma), who had no idea our water was off. He said the other end of the block had no water but ours was supposed to be working.

Second, was someone from the area who is also dealing with water outages on (what sounds like) the opposite times of our on again/off again water outage. 

Then came a third from (who knows how far) down the street. They had just about given up on finding the water trailer when they spotted me coming home with my full jugs. When I pointed out where the trailer was located they decided to go home and drive.

I just looked out the window to spot a small group of other neighbors visiting on the street. 

After almost a year of relative isolation and staying-at-home, I cannot tell you how happy my heart feels to be meeting up with neighbors at the local watering hole.

The best things in life are free (and unexpected).