STILL WAITING

When we first heard about the natural gas outage affecting our region, it was late Wednesday afternoon (Nov. 8). Checking his phone for notifications before his shower, Mike remarked, “What! We don’t have hot water!” I was washing a few dishes, but the water was still warm and I hadn’t noticed.

“Let’s take quick showers while we still have warm water,” said Mike. He washed by turning the water on and off. My concession was just to hurry and not to wash my hair.

It’s interesting how various households were affected. Most furnaces are gas, so people were without heat. Fortunately, it’s not super cold right now. While we have no hot water, we can cook and we can heat water. Friends had hot water but couldn’t cook. (Long live the microwave!) On the other hand, son Murray was able to heat his small apartment by baking. His lattice-top pie and wheat rolls were beautiful!

The outage was mostly an inconvenience for us. We usually turn on the furnace to warm the house in the morning, and then we adjourn to our separate rooms where we have space heaters. Later in the day, Mike lights the little woodstove to make the dark hours cozy. So, we missed the furnace step, and just lit the stove earlier. BUT – we didn’t have hot water, and we missed it. We couldn’t take showers or run the dishwasher. I could have washed the laundry in cold water, but I didn’t bother since we have a gas dryer.

So, the worst of it was that we couldn’t take showers. I said I would stand on a ladder above the shower and pour water over Mike, but he declined my offer. So, we were glad enough to escape to the farm Friday afternoon (Nov. 10). We luxuriated – luxuriated, I say – in warm showers. I washed my hair and Mike scrubbed his scalp. As much as anything, a nice warm shower warms us on a cold day.

We returned to town from the farm early yesterday morning in order to be at the house for the scheduled relight process. They still hadn’t come when it was time for Mike’s shower, so he took me up on my previous offer to pour water over him. I stood on a sturdy stool and poured warm water from our garden sprinkling can.

As of this writing, we still await service. I note that those who were relit early in the process feel relieved and grateful to Avista, but those of us who are still waiting realize that the schedule was overly ambitious.

But – when I think of the devastation suffered in the world, I just count my blessings. We endure some frustrating inconvenience – that’s all. KW