Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Clean Running Water

I've just had a shower. Pure luxury. Warm water, shampoo, shaved legs -- the whole bit. I've been without running water for 26 hours, due to a little problem re-routing the pipes on my street. Now, as is the case with these little problems, nobody knew about it before it happened, and thus I didn't leap into the shower in anticipation before-hand. Let's just say that at 9 am yesterday morning, after my exercise class with the incredible Stan -- I really needed a shower, but water was nowhere to be found.

In my little village on the side of the mountain, we've had our share of boil-water advisories, so dealing with bottled water is nothing new. But this time, I had no water at all, meaning that to flush a toilet, I had to go out to my rain barrel (which I thankfully didn't drain last week -- even though I intended to, as it was looking pretty grungy) and fill a couple of buckets to dump into the toilet tank.

But the pipes are now hooked up, the water is flowing and all is well. Even the toilets are merrily flushable, with clean water (and no leaves) shushing down the drain.

All I can think about are the people in Burma (Myanmar) post-cyclone and the others in China post-earthquake. Not many hot showers or flushing toilets being enjoyed there.

If you haven't made a donation yet, I'd like to make it easy for you. Here's a link to the Canadian Red Cross site.

https://www.paypaq.com/redcross/new/

From this single link you can direct your funds toward the campaigns they have for Burma, China and other areas in need around the world.

Another choice is Medecins Sans Frontieres, and once again from this Canadian site, you can direct your donated funds as you choose.

Enjoy your next shower!


***

While I was in the shower, I very sweetly left my dogs in the kitchen, since it is raining outside. They have lots of shelter outside, but heck, thought I, let 'em stay in. Now, as you, my cherished readers well know, I've learned my lesson with puppy Silas. I cleaned everything off the counters before heading upstairs. Both dogs were lying contentedly on their respective beds.

I came back down to this:





You will note Silas is still contentedly on a bed -- only it is Seamus's bed, since his own is now eaten. This is bed number 4 consumed by Silas.




Oh -- and I forgot my toothbrush, by the sink. Rather than lugging the water upstairs to my bathroom this morning, I brought the toothbrush down to the kitchen sink.

I call this shot 'Toothbrush Reconstructed'.





My dogs are now outside.

~kc

3 comments:

A Novel Woman said...

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Love the shot of the toothbrush.

Lenore Appelhans said...

And I thought my cat was bad for chewing up my bills :)

kc dyer said...

Hi Lenore,

The story of what my cat chewed up this week is so supremely disgusting I cannot even bring myself to type it here.

You have my empathy!

~kc