Day 14: PuscAsheville Rambling
As I sit listening to the news briefing, I have to acknowledge that Avril Pender, the Buncombe County Manager, has been at every news briefing delivering good and bad news each day. Her job is not an easy one. The facts may not be what we want to hear, but facts need to be heard.
In the background is the drone of Chinook copters. This sound is a constant reminder that it could have been worse for us. That Saturday, September 28, was so quiet. It reminded me of September 12th. There was nothing flying overhead and no cars on the roads. There were no lawnmowers, leaf blowers or chainsaws: only the song of birds. The silence brought a deeply felt feeling of isolation. I will never forget hearing and seeing the first Chinook fly overhead. I felt a calm wash over me. I murmured "The Calvary has arrived!" Quickly I related that feeling of being in a foreign country and seeing an American flag flying over the sovereign land of a US Embassy. My eyes welled up with tears, as I allowed just one to escape. I shook my head and I reminded myself that it was too early for tears and I need to summon once again the strength that seems to be harder to conjure with age.
The relief of knowing we, the community, were seen.
In the days that followed little did we know that planning when you relieved yourself would become a thing! Tom used to laugh at my prepping after each of our doomsday scenarios we have lived through. Lessons learned addressed for the next doomsday event. This lesson to date: you can never have enough water. I am talking non-potable water. However. I am pretty proud of ourselves that water to flush our toilets, that I stockpiled, have lasted two weeks! We are now at the point that we will forage for what is termed "grey" water. I bet you all never thought you would be standing in line to get water to flush a toilet! Yeah...me neither.
You find yourself asking how can you make things more self-sufficient. Not being a camper you don't know about things like solar showers. Now that my Internet has returned, the research started. Oh...I can get this and warm the water up with the power of the sun. I can take a warm shower in my own home. How cool is that?! Then this happens...I need to get more water so I can do that. Shoulders slump and a sigh. We haven't ruled it out. It is an adjustment to what is happening now. Today, I will be doing the math of how much bottled water makes 5 gallons. Then, we all know that if I order one from Amazon by the time it arrives we will probably have water again. That's the way things work, right? LOL.
All of this definitely reminds me I am truly a city girl. I am the wife in the TV show "Green Acres" with some exceptions. I am a better cook, for one.
It is odd that the essential we are so dependent on is the most elusive here. Of course, this is because of the, "catastrophic" damage to Asheville's water distribution system. The city's answers to questions have become part of our flippant answers to any questions we ask these days. Sayings like "Water has a mind of its own" is used for any response, replacing water with whatever topic we are discussing. For example, "Jello has a mind of its own." It at least provides a laugh. If only we could get an answer to the question I sent to those with direct contact with the person presenting these flippant little catch phrases. I guess we are talking "weeks, not days" before we discover someone forgot to flip a valve to open for us. This is another example of feeling isolated and unheard during this experience.
As I end this rambling, my mind turns to what to fix for dinner. Can I make a pizza? How much water will be used for the recipe? How much water will be needed for clean up?
Do they give out a Pulitzer for the most creative way to clean up before, during, and after a meal using the least amount of water? I think I would win that prize!
Thanks for reading and your comments. It is nice to hear from "all y'all." Laugh and smile as much as you can. It makes life a lot more fun.
The photo is one of the staging areas of our bottled water.