Earlier this week, we received a note in the mail: “On Wednesday, from 8 AM to 10 AM, there’ll be no running water due to repair works.” My family and I filled some containers with water but paid little mind to the notice otherwise. “What’s two hours,” we thought. “It’ll be over before we know it.”
Well, as luck would have it, I slept poorly that night, woke up later, and, on said day, found myself standing in the bathroom at 8:45 AM. I had just finished washing my hands when…drip…drip…dry. The workers had started a bit later, but alas, here we were. No water.
For the next two hours, we tried not to pee or flush, rinsed our hands in water buckets, and drank what we had, then opened some mineral water bottles we still had around. By 11, the water still wasn’t back, and when my mom called to ask, she got the bad news: The workers had broken off a knob somewhere, and now, the repairs would take until 4 PM. Yowza!
Instead of two hours, now, we were looking at eight without water. Still less than a day, and yet… Suddenly, the struggle was on. We kept preserving as best as we could. Used forks and knives to eat anything so we didn’t get our hands dirty. Drank in small increments. And tried to add water to the toilet from some buckets after we had used all our remaining flushes.
Eventually, the water came back a little earlier than expected. Phew! But when my dad and I returned from a short trip in the evening, we found a new note in our mailbox. “Due to repair works…” As it turned out, the leak still needed fixing—and the next day, we were in for another six hours of dryness. We had less time to prepare but more experience—and lower expectations. In the end, we managed fine.
Still, the whole incident reminded me: Modern life is fragile. You take away the basics, and, within hours, all hell breaks loose.
Life can get weird fast. Appreciate the basics while you can. It keeps you humble when the easy times run out. Just like your water might from time to time.
