Call It What You Want...

It's 8:40 a.m. The small boy is having a joyous breakfast of Cheerios and milk and bananas. The doorbell rings.

"We'll be turning off the water at about 9 o' clock to work on the water line leaks down on the corner. It'll be off for about seven hours."

"You've got to be kidding!"

Sympathetic smile.

"You don't have a 15-month-old, do you?"

"No." Small chuckle.

"Well, thanks..."

Then it's off to give the boy another chunk of banana (he's entirely un-trustworthy with the whole thing) while I start filling buckets. I might have to use the bathroom today! I might have to drink water! Who knows how long it's been since I watered the plants? They may expire before the water comes back on! What about scrubbing the showers and solid-surface floors? Finishing the laundry? Washing the windows? Running the dishwasher? Boiling a half-dozen eggs? Taking a bath? For that matter, taking a shower???

Well, I have one flush in each toilet (except the downstairs one, which already got used. Amazing, isn't it how you suddenly have to GO when you know you have a limit???) and two buckets of water downstairs and two (smaller) buckets of water on the main level, and two bottles of water in the fridge. And, barring any unforeseen troubles in the repair, only 5 more hours to go...