After a wonderful weekend off, Monday did not get off on the right foot. It seemed like no one was listening to me, the house kept getting messy and I was running late. I had to get the house clean, get supper on and get everyone out the door to pick up my sister Hannah so she could babysit while I went to work. Chet ended up working yesterday and it was a very last minute sort of thing so it was slight chaos on my end.
Every time I tried to get in the shower, another catastrophe would happen. I contemplated calling in to work and my excuse would have been that my personal hygiene is an infection control issue at this point and that I would be putting my residents at risk.
Finally around 1:35pm, about 25 minutes before we had to leave, I hopped in the shower. Things were looking up, finally. Until after I put conditioner in my hair. Then that's when the water shut off.
My first thought was, "I paid the bill, right?" My second thought was, "Of course I paid the bill! Our lights are still on." My third thought was, "Now what do I do?"
I checked the faucets around the house and nothing was coming out. No water. I was drenched in soap and conditioner and had no way of rinsing off. I contemplated pulling a Calvin and Hobbes and sticking my head in the toilet and flushing, but I figured that if the water was shut off, the toilet probably wouldn't flush.
I peeked out the window and saw a few utility workers monkeying with a fire hydrant. Not knowing how long this water outage would last, I picked up the phone to alert work that I would likely be late. And as I did that, the water came back on.
A utility worker knocked on my door a while later and told me that the water would be shut off tomorrow from 8:30am to 4pm to fix a problem the neighbors are having. Fantastic, I told him mentally. You realize that Tuesdays are my only day off and I'm supposed to cook and clean and bake and do laundry tomorrow and how am I supposed to do that without water?
I scurried out the door, only six minutes behind schedule and gave Avery the task of walking with Piper down the snowy sidewalk. Piper fell a few days ago on the ice and hit her head so she's been extra cautious walking on anything that doesn't look like cement. I had the boys and we were almost to the van when I heard the girls arguing a ways back.
Piper refused to go with Avery and Avery kept pulling on her arm. Piper had enough and sat down in the snow, in her jeggings. She's too scared to walk through the snow with Avery but she'll sit down in it. Makes sense to me. She sat there, bawling, as I buckled up the kids who made it in one piece, until I could go get her. Then off we went, Piper sitting in her car seat in her soggy clothes.
Avery has no school today because of the icy roads. I got a call from the superintendent at 5am and in the fog of being half asleep and half awake, I almost thanked him for calling me and letting me know, then realized it was probably an automated message and that would be a waste of my breath and decided to just end the call.
And today we have no water. No dishes can be done, no laundry can be washed, no toilets can be flushed and roads too icy to drive to Grandma's for the day. Looks like a day for snuggling up with a good book and a fat baby.
Every time I tried to get in the shower, another catastrophe would happen. I contemplated calling in to work and my excuse would have been that my personal hygiene is an infection control issue at this point and that I would be putting my residents at risk.
Finally around 1:35pm, about 25 minutes before we had to leave, I hopped in the shower. Things were looking up, finally. Until after I put conditioner in my hair. Then that's when the water shut off.
My first thought was, "I paid the bill, right?" My second thought was, "Of course I paid the bill! Our lights are still on." My third thought was, "Now what do I do?"
I checked the faucets around the house and nothing was coming out. No water. I was drenched in soap and conditioner and had no way of rinsing off. I contemplated pulling a Calvin and Hobbes and sticking my head in the toilet and flushing, but I figured that if the water was shut off, the toilet probably wouldn't flush.
I peeked out the window and saw a few utility workers monkeying with a fire hydrant. Not knowing how long this water outage would last, I picked up the phone to alert work that I would likely be late. And as I did that, the water came back on.
A utility worker knocked on my door a while later and told me that the water would be shut off tomorrow from 8:30am to 4pm to fix a problem the neighbors are having. Fantastic, I told him mentally. You realize that Tuesdays are my only day off and I'm supposed to cook and clean and bake and do laundry tomorrow and how am I supposed to do that without water?
I scurried out the door, only six minutes behind schedule and gave Avery the task of walking with Piper down the snowy sidewalk. Piper fell a few days ago on the ice and hit her head so she's been extra cautious walking on anything that doesn't look like cement. I had the boys and we were almost to the van when I heard the girls arguing a ways back.
Piper refused to go with Avery and Avery kept pulling on her arm. Piper had enough and sat down in the snow, in her jeggings. She's too scared to walk through the snow with Avery but she'll sit down in it. Makes sense to me. She sat there, bawling, as I buckled up the kids who made it in one piece, until I could go get her. Then off we went, Piper sitting in her car seat in her soggy clothes.
Avery has no school today because of the icy roads. I got a call from the superintendent at 5am and in the fog of being half asleep and half awake, I almost thanked him for calling me and letting me know, then realized it was probably an automated message and that would be a waste of my breath and decided to just end the call.
And today we have no water. No dishes can be done, no laundry can be washed, no toilets can be flushed and roads too icy to drive to Grandma's for the day. Looks like a day for snuggling up with a good book and a fat baby.
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