I Thought It Was Around Here Somewhere

Despite the date tag above, this is actually Wednesday’s blog.

Get some water for tea, maybe use the toilet, wash the dishes. Uh… there’s no water? Yeah, no water. Now you have to think in advance about everything you are going to do, because we use it so often and for so many things. In this case, it was because of a water main break in the middle of a cold snap that resulted in the ordinary precautions (sinks left dripping) no longer working.

It’s one of many things that work without our noticing it. Or, when it’s not working right, then we do notice it. Stomach problems; we eat and drink through the day, with meals and snacks, and never think about it. But when it acts up – that’s when we know it’s there.

I’m writing this because down the river a few miles, some bored guy is (supposedly) watching over the nuke plant which is generating our electricity. I’m looking out the window and there isn’t any glow in the sky, so I guess he’s still awake. We don’t think of it; when I walk into my room, I flip the light switch with no thought of the possibility that nothing might happen. None of us do, until the power is out. Then almost everything in our lives is out.

In the Olden Days, our ancestors got along just fine without eyeglasses. Of course, they weren’t reading so it didn’t matter. But we’re used to near-perfect correction, so when our specs are missing, we suddenly realize how little we thought about them before.