Friday, April 11, 2008

It's fun to be me!

One little bonus about living in the country is that you have your own well. The water tastes great, none of that chemical taste like city water, and you don't have a water bill! You can water your grass until you are blue in the face! Granted the well is run by electricity, so there is THAT bill to contend with.

The downside to the well is that when the electricity goes out...no water. And wells are not problem free.

Yesterday morning I ran 3 miles at 6am. Bliss. A little later, the La-Z-Boy store called and our new chairs will be delivered on Monday. More bliss. That news sends me into a tail spin of furniture re-arranging, which I have to tell you is one of my FAVORITE things to do. I live for furniture re-arranging!

I ran and sweat like pig, moved furniture and sweat like a pig...I decided it would be beneficial to all mankind for me to jump in the shower before I went to pick up B.R. from school. I turned on the faucet in the shower and NO water. Nothing. Hubs is in New Mexico for the day calling on customers. Lovely...and oh by the way, I stink.

Hubs guides me through, over the phone, a few steps of checking the breaker, looking at the pressure gauge, blah blah blah. All good and still no water. When I see the neighbor across the street get home and I call him over. He tinkers around and checks more things. Nothing.

The whole well thing can make you break out in a cold sweat. It can be something easy like a pressure switch or the pressure tank which are all conveniently located in the garage. Or on a much more frightening note...it could be the pump or the motor which are all underground in the well. If you have to call the "well man" to come pull up your pump or motor you are...well... screwed. It is VERY, V*E*R*Y expensive to do that.

I called the plumber, who is a friend of ours. While waiting for him to call back, hubs got back into town and thinks maybe it is the pressure switch because that has gone out before. Trip to Lowes, a $20 pressure switch and back in business.

While hubs is at Lowes, the plumber calls and happens to be in the vicinity so he said he would stop by. He starts checking stuff and no, it's not the pressure switch. Hubs gets back and they figure and tinker and figure some more. The plumber calls one of his well buddies, they confer and then more tinkering.

I want to vomit thinking we are going to have to have the pump pulled. It would be our Christmas 2008...in April...for the whole family! Barf.

2 hours later and by the plumber's best guess it is a relay switch that is out, thank God! Hubs is going somewhere this morning to pick one up and coming back home to put it on...and we'll keep our fingers crossed on that one!

Do you know how many times I have turned on the faucet out of habit, even knowing there is no water? Absurd.

B.R. played outside all afternoon yesterday, so there was no way I was letting him go to school without a shower! Of course we could have gone to MIL's house last night, and the neighbors generously offered their showers to us. But we are rednecks, we have the "Hilton on wheels" horse trailer! Hubs drove it over to the neighbors house, filled up the holding tank and we were in business.Ahhhhh....shower.
Here is a shivering B.R. after his horse trailer shower, putting his shoes on to go back up to the house. Hubs took a shower out there this morning. And me? Well I still stink!

This morning I filled up buckets of water from the neighbors faucet. Came back home and filled up all three toilet tanks with water so we could flush them and then...
managed to rinse off all the dirty dishes in the sink and load them in the dishwasher. This morning I rinsed out the coffee pot with San Pellegrino! Luckily we had enough bottled water on hand to drink, brush teeth, water the dog and cats, wash hands, etc...

My friends sometimes ask me what I do all day since I don't have a "job" or if I get bored. Lord have mercy. Do I sound bored or lacking for things to do?!?!? Does schlepping buckets of water from the neighbor's outside faucet to our house and then filling up my toilet tanks sound boring? I think not! This crazy life is more than enough "job" for this former city girl!!!

I am taking my stinky self to WalMart now. Luckily, I doubt any of WalMart's "clientele" will notice my funk.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Never a dull moment!! I understanad the whole well thing. Thankfully, they have city water in the area, so if we had to--YUCK!!!! You have got to blog more. You make me laugh. Laughing once a week does not cut it!!!!

Mary said...

You should have gone to "Jennifer's" house!! She would have welcomed you and your stinky self. That better be fixed next week! I have important plans at your house on Friday!!! he,he,he

And I agree with Lorie, know you're "busy", but you've GOT to blog more often!!!

Staci said...

I have to agree with Lorie and Mary. When I pull up your blog and there's nothing new, I'm really bummed.