Aqua Vitae

Aqua Vitae...Water of Life.

The human body is roughly 60% water.

Nearly 70% of the Earth's surface is covered by water.

We all use water every day, many times a day and when it isn't there at our fingertips, it can throw us for a loop.

Case in point...

Monday evening I rinsed a glass to put into the dishwasher. I turned on the cold water tap and watched in disbelief as the water pressure grew weaker and then the stream of water completely disappeared. Dang, I had more things to rinse and I wanted to run my dishwasher later, but alas I would have a few dirty dishes in the sink when I woke up the next morning.

I had no bottled or jugged water on hand (usually a hurricane supply item and it is not hurricane season currently, but you can bet I will always have some on hand now, as well as Handi-wipes or diaper wipes) so I began to worry, nay, darn-near freak out about no showers, teeth brushing, flushing toilets and washing hands before bed that evening, let alone all of the next day's water usage issues. It hit me how dependent we are on having our clean, running water on demand and at our fingertips.

I called The Colonel over to the sink. What the heck?!?...Great.

Out the door we went to check the well and its supporting equipment. We checked the water lines, filter, conditioner and pressure gauge. The lines showed no leaks, the filter was clean, the conditioner was running smoothly, but the pressure gauge read zero. The Colonel said he thought it could be either the well pump (major buckage and time in repairs) or the pressure gauge malfunctioning (less buckage and time in repairs). We could do nothing but speculate and refrain from using "sentence enhancers" (cursing) while contemplating our bad luck, so we decided to turn in for the night.

Before we went to bed I scribbled a note for Spud, 'Water is Off', and placed it where he would see it when he woke up the next morning. The Colonel suggested we put some ice cubes in a pitcher so that they would melt over night and then we could make our much needed cups of coffee in the morning. Excellent plan.

The next morning with cups in hand containing coffee made with glacial-like, crystal clear water, we made the appropriate phone calls that would facilitate in ending our "dry spell".

Two hours and forty-five minutes later the repairman showed up like the cavalry. He looked at the equipment and quickly determined it was the pressure gauge. YESSS!! He broke out his tools and proceeded to fix the problem.

Forty-five minutes and $50 (thanks to our homeowners maintenance agreement) later, Bob's your uncle, he was finished with the job.

It was a relief to know we had water again.

I hope to never take running water for granted again, but people being creatures of habit and comfort that we are, I probably won't even realize I have taken it for granted again until it is not there (God forbid).