Water woes have her wishing

My daughter sent me a cartoon today. It showed a couple of horses standing over a groundhog hole. One horse had a bat in its mouth. The caption was, “Smack him good, before he sees his shadow.” I can relate to that, as I am currently in the mood to hunt down the furry creature and fit him with an umbrella and dark glasses so he can never see his shadow again.
I don’t know about you, but I have had enough of winter. Last week began with predictions of record cold. We left our water running Monday night and as of six a.m. it was still running. Not so a couple of hours later. Nothing.
I keep a few gallons of water stored in plastic milk jugs. This is supposed to be used to water the plants. Keeping it in jugs allows the chlorine in the water to dissipate and the liquid to come to room temperature. The plants like it better that way. This water was quickly used for the essential task of flushing. I was so grateful that we had invested in low flow toilets instead of the old ones that used five or six gallons per flush.
Two days later, after we had emptied every plastic bottle of water we had, and had made a couple trips to the store to purchase more water, the pipes started to thaw. We realized this when we heard water running.
Of course, it wasn’t coming out of the tap. We shut off the main water valve and my husband proceeded to fix the leak. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the only leak and by the time we discovered this, the plumbing parts store was closed.
The next day we finished up the plumbing. I actually enjoyed washing the dishes. We refilled all the plastic bottles and milk jugs, just in case.
Then the furnace decided to blow its breaker. We reset it and went to bed. It was very cold the next morning when we discovered that the furnace breaker had blown again. Thankfully, it seems to be working now.
Then our internet went down. Hours later, that problem was resolved. We celebrated by attending a concert. Things were finally looking up.
When my mom called the next day, I could tell by her voice that she was almost back to her old self. That cheered me up almost as much as getting the water woes fixed.
Then Sunday, I read that Punxsutawney Phil had predicted another six long weeks of winter. I wanted to strangle the beast. I don’t know if we can handle another six weeks of this. But then I realized that Phil doesn’t have a very good track record. He has seen his shadow 101 times since they first started keeping track. He failed to see it only 17 times. Personally, I think he is hallucinating. But since he is wrong as often as not, maybe I should let the poor rodent be.
Spring will officially arrive on March 20 this year, whether the groundhog is right or not. Nobody knows exactly when the weather will change from frigid to warm. I try to be grateful that the cold has lingered as long as it has. The absence of the usual freezing and thawing means less frost heave. Plus it should be a good show for the spring bulbs, assuming spring will get here eventually.
Seeing all the plumbing trucks around town, reading the stories in the newspaper, and talking to people have told me that we are far from being alone in our water problems. This winter has been a rough one as far as weather is concerned. As soon as we get the driveway shoveled, more snow obliterates our efforts. As soon as we get one leak fixed, another pops up. It’s always something. But despite Phil’s disheartening prediction, spring will come. Winter won’t last forever. It only seems that way.

[[In-content Ad]]