Water

When I moved into this lovely new town last July, we were in the middle of a heat wave. Every day was over 100 degrees and we had a funny plumbing glitch: all of the water in the house, every faucet, toilet, tub, and hose had only boiling hot water coming from it. We spent three weeks, in extremely hot weather, cooling water in pans and bathtubs in order to use it. Last Thursday, we had to call a plumber back because the same problem had returned to one of the bathrooms.

He turned off the water, looked around, told us we needed to order parts and arranged to come back when the parts arrived. Oh well...not too big a problem...we thought. That was the day of New Year's Eve. We woke up in the morning to 39 degree weather and nothing but icy cold water throughout the house. In case you've never tried to get a repair person over to the house on New Year's Day, I can tell you that it is similar to trying to get a repair person on 4th of July weekend. Not easy.

While heating some water for a shampoo, I had a chance to really consider the irony of boiling-hot water in the summer and freezing water in the winter. It's not only pretty darned funny; it also gives me the chance to be hugely grateful for the fact that I live where I can usually get hot and cold, clean, running water on command. This incident really heightened my awareness of the growing worldwide problem of access to clean water. I found cleanwateraction.org, signed a petition, and made a donation; because, when the Universe sends me a sign Twice, I want to listen.