High and dry

It's so interesting to me how people react to bad news. I came to work today and announced that my well had run dry. One clerk said "Oh no! That's terrible, what are you going to do?" The other one said "Are you sure it's not your pump? It's probably your pump. I bet your pump is broken and you'll have to buy a new one. I used to hear about this all the time, you know." Her ex-husband sells pumps. A dry well, believe it or not, is definitely the lesser of two evils.

Yes, when I got up this morning my pump was running solid. Not good. When I flushed the toilet the tank did not fill up. When I turned on the faucet nothing came out. I know what that usually means. And it makes sense, too--I was down in the cellar hole last week to shut off the heater and the hole where the sump pump lives was dry. It's never dry. That means there's not much ground water. This is really strange, since my sump pump has been running all winter, but then there's seldom an explanation for what goes on in nature (in my opinion, anyway). So I'm dry. I always have about 7 gallons of water available in various containers, so I could get ready for work, but I neglected to fill the dogs water bowl last night. I did clean the fish tank, partly emptying it & refilling it, so they have a sparkling clean house. When I run out of water like this I have to laugh because the dogs drink nearly a gallon a day and I begrudge them that.

Anyway I'm going away for 4 days, and if it really is the well it should replenish itself during that time, enough for me to flush and shower often enough to live an ok life. I've been through this lots of times, almost every year for a stretch. I'll go to the laundromat, which is a drag but can be done easily after work (I still have an impressive stash of quarters, as if I knew this was coming). My laundromat has a TV and is clean and comfortable.

Today it's still spring. I went to the dump on my way to work, got rid of 1 bag of trash and 1 bag of garbage (yes, there's a difference). I like to compliment the dump lady on her truck, it makes her smile a big, wide smile. It's a beautiful Ford F150 Super Cab, dark silver like my car. Really nice truck.

It's rainy today (now I'll monitor every drop of rain). We didn't get enough snow this year to help the groundwater so I can only hope for a rainy spring. I'll set up my rain barrels now--I can use that water for flushing. Ah, life in the wilderness.

Today I'm devoting time to member library discards because we're running a file for the regional data base next week. This is utterly mindless work. I'm actually doing the nonfiction that I weeded from the AuSable Forks library. Too queer. I've been informed that use of the word "queer" in this way is a totally Midwestern thing, never done in the East.