Precious Water

"It's not fair!  Why does Alex get to wash his hands?" 

Not something I hear every day, right?  Yes, the fortunate, privileged Alex stood at the kitchen sink this morning luxuriating his paws in a stream of water (poured by yours truly).  We had bar soap and everything.

The children had been awake for less than a half hour and yet were already feeling the water crisis acutely, as the household water had to be shut off last night due to a kitchen leak.  Fortunately, the leak began while Michael and I were sitting at the kitchen table after the kids were already settled in bed.  If we'd gone to bed at the same time, we'd have woken to find the downstairs flooded, as the leak involved a steady pour of water from the icemaker dispenser.

As a sidenote, this is really quite the curious event, as an almost identical situation occurred last month at our home in SC (my grandparents' old place).  There, however, we didn't get to it in time, and the 'fix' included ripping up linoleum and dealing with fungal growth in the wall behind the leak.  Quite the awful experience--so, yes, I truly am very grateful that we were present when the water started pouring from the fridge last night!

Poor Alex had gotten blamed by me for prior hints and indications of the impending crisis, as he's our 'ice boy'.  Fiona and I rarely get ice, but Alex loves ice water.  In both locations, I'd been having repetitive occurences of puddled water in front of the fridge, and I assumed it was his fault--and I have often seen him drop pieces of ice on the floor, so the blame was not entirely without justification!   

So, until our personal handyman Michael (a.k.a. 'Pa', think Charles Ingalls from Little House on the Prairie) can get this leak fixed, we are without household running water.  It's not actually the horribly unpleasant experience it was when I was a girl, though, as we have a backup water supply.  No, not a couple of jugs stashed away.  We have two huge barrels of water outside!  Yes, Michael installed rain barrels a year ago or so, and this is the first time that we've actually really needed the water.  We've used the water for watering plants a bit, but today the gratitude sets in, for I have already brought in several loads of water--for handwashing, for the toilet...  It's nice to have water to wipe down the counters and all such.  Oh, and yes, Fiona did get to wash her hands! 

I'm not actually sure what the potability of the water is--and I don't think I'm going to find out either!  Not this go-round, anyway (though it looks and smells fine)!  Luckily, I'd already filled water bottles for the kids' lunches last night and put them in the fridge.  That actually doesn't often occur, but it was nice. Fiona asked, with big eyes, "Mom, could I have a sip of my lunch water?" this morning.  She was thrilled to have the water available. 

You know, I've always wanted to have a hand pump for water--just in case.  I often have worried about emergency scenarios--and, on the multiple occasions that we were briefly out of water in my childhood, I always thought how grateful I'd be for that alternate source of water.  Now, with two huge barrels of water, I feel pretty luxurious about it all!  Isn't that funny?  Oh, the things we normally take for granted!