water appreciation day 2021

I woke up, went to the kitchen to make my breakfast mocha, and turned on the tap. No water came out. Ohhh right, there was a scheduled water shutdown today from 9 to 5. I read the notification email and then promptly forgot about it. I had intended to prep in advance by gathering containers of water the night before, but, well, too late now.

The water system in this building is old and crappy and we have a lot of water shutdowns. I never used to care that much because they'd happen during the day while I was at work. But it's pretty annoying being a captive audience for this kind of thing.

A couple years ago, building management announced they were doing a big project to modernize the building's water system. There was a full week of water shutdowns, but they assured us it'd be worth it because in the future, they wouldn't have to shut down the entire building's water supply to resolve problems with a particular unit. They gave us progress updates: 90% done! 95% done! ...Then, radio silence. They apparently never completed the project, and we still get just as many water shutdowns as before.

I was planning to make a proper lunch today instead of sticking frozen food in the oven, but of course I couldn't wash the pan, so I just had another oven lunch. My roommate was going to have a salad, but he couldn't wash the lettuce, so he also defaulted to an oven lunch.

I miss water.

I'm thirsty. I had nothing to drink with lunch.

Around 3:30 pm, there was a loud gurgling from the bathroom, heralding the return of water to the building. All hail. Imagine being excited to drink a glass of tap water and then wash last night's dishes. We're living the good life.

In other water-related news, we recently had a winter storm, and my balcony is now mostly covered in snow and ice. It's not that much, but I made things worse by walking over the snow while it was fresh, and my footprints hardened into solid ice. So I haven't been able to take balcony walks for the past few days. I still head out there daily to enjoy some fresh air and check to see if there's been any melting.