Third World Living

Saturday morning we woke up to no water in the house.  I immediately blamed David for not paying the water bill. Again. (Did you know it takes TWO delinquent bills to get your water shut off? That's just what I heard.) David shoved the water bill in my face to show me we remembered to pay this month and we went to David's work to find out it was not working there either.  He checked the Valdosta Daily Times website for breaking news on a water main break, walked the street to see if he saw anything (not sure what he was looking for), and he considered waking up our neighbors to get the latest on the water situation.

But instead I just opened Facebook.  At 7:30 a.m. there were at least five posts about the water not working in the entire town.  And those neighbors I was so worried about David waking up? They called us at 8:00 a.m. from Sam's Club wanting to know if we needed a few cases of water.

Long story short, we are now on a boil order and we are not to consume any water from the city until further notice.

Here are five amazing thoughts about this situation: 

1. If ever there is a crises just open Facebook.  Although the information might not be accurate…"Just talked to my second cousin who is a secretary for the water place and he said we won't have water for two weeks." , at least you won't be aimlessly walking around the house looking for the water shut off while wondering why someone would want to mess with our water shut off.

2. Babies are so much happier after they take baths.  Hadley (and everyone else in town)  went 24 hours without cleansing.  So you can imagine how her day went.

3. Dixie plates, bowls, and cutlery are fantastic.  I challenge you to do your dishes under a boil order…  boil water for at least a minute, let cool,  pour into sink.  Repeat about five times until you have enough water in your sink to do dishes.  Then wash dishes.  Rinse (But be sure not to rinse with boiling water or it will burn you.  Let. It. Cool. I would know.).

4.  Running dirty water is a lot better then no water at all.  At least it is warm dirty water and we can still take showers.

5.  Don't forget about your pets in a situation like this.  If you have a dog like Albert who likes to drink out of the toilets frequently, make sure you shut the lids.  We realized this today (48 hours later) after David said "is Albert supposed to be drinking out of that toilet?"  So far, no symptoms.  But luckily for us he has a lot worse things in his belly (dirty diapers, pacifiers, a 12 pack of bagels, and the list could go on).