If civilization ends...

...I think I would not mind at all being one of the first casualties. Especially if it was a case of something like running water becoming a distant memory. After seeing a couple episodes of that dumb The Colony a few years back, I think that being without basic hygiene would be very difficult.

It's even harder when you work full-time and have to do stuff like figure out a 30 minute slot in the day to go get water. (Though I suppose if civilization crashed, I'd be unemployed, and have copious time to seek water and food and such. Well, I still stand by the fact that I am not sure I'd want to live in the broken remnants of a world like that.)

Oh, I know people adapt. And I know people lived for many, many generations without running water. (Even my mother grew up without it). But: they had proper outhouses. And in the case of my mother's family, the well was easily accessible and was set up in such a way to make getting water easy.

I still find the worst part is dealing with dishes. I admit, I went and got a chicken sandwich "from out" for my dinner last night because I couldn't face trying to cook and then trying to wash the pans and dishes with my little stock of bottled water. (And I had already gone the peanut-butter-sandwich route enough times I was sick of it). And of course that added on the "I know this is going to upset my stomach" (it did, but not badly) and the layer of guilt of "Oh my gosh, I wonder how much fat is in this thing. I really should not be eating it" followed by the helpless feeling of "I don't have enough drinking water to boil pasta AND wash the pan afterward; I'd have to make another trip out to the store for more water."

(I can see now why people who live in "food deserts" and other situations where cooking is difficult have such poor-by-nutritionist-standards diets: you just get so overwhelmed and TIRED and you need something to eat and it's easier just to go to a carry-out place. It's NOT merely a matter of "if they had better willpower or time management, they would eat better." There are so many other factors that come into play.)

Even having to dipper water out of a five-gallon bucket to flush isn't as frustrating as worrying about "what can I fix to eat that will require minimal silverware, plates, and preparation vessels?"

(I think now of an M.F.K. Fisher essay, where she chronicled the attempt of a man to eat VERY cheaply...he boiled up a sort of mush of grain and vegetables (having to go down into the courtyard of where he lived to get the water, having to beg the use of his landlady's stove, and such). And how each day he ate a plate of the cold mushy stuff...and the first day or so, dutifully trotted down to the courtyard to wash his plate and spoon...and then, as time wore on, realized, "I'm the only one eating off this" and began LICKING the plate and spoon clean, like a dog would.

And the point being, there comes a point where, in the exigencies of dealing with problems, we have to guard against becoming too uncivilized. (If I remember correctly, after a day or two of doing that, the young man recoiled in horror at what he was becoming, broke the plate and threw the spoon out the window, borrowed money from a friend, and went out and ate a restaurant meal. I may be conflating two stories, or I may be misremembering parts of one, but the gist of it was that there is a point where we become sort of, I don't know, animalistic? because we reach a point where our ability to cope with difficulties is overcome. Or maybe a better way of stating it: sacrificing any sort of aesthetics in the name of sheer survival)

I did manage to wash my hair last night by dumping water from the gallon jugs I had bought on it. It takes almost a gallon of water just to wet my hair down when it's greasy. If I had to go on without water much longer, I'd be getting my hair bobbed, even if that's a bad look for me. (And again: sacrificing aesthetics for ease of surviving.)

Okie Dig did make it out, I still have an 8:30 Friday arrival time for the plumber. But I'm not sanguine...when Okie Dig marked where the water line was, they seemed to continue the marking UNDER MY DRIVEWAY. There are a series of paint "spots" on the drive. So...it looks like the water line comes up from where the meter is, runs up alongside the drive (towards the house) for a couple feet...and then takes a bend over away from the house? And continues to run up to the garage? What? That can't be right. I don't HAVE water in the garage, I don't have an outdoor tap or anything there. So I don't know if Okie Dig made a mistake or if they were just playing around, or if their paint can leaked and made spots as they walked back to the backyard to find the other lines.

I just looked at the curvy line of yellow dots with dismay. Surely, surely no one would be such an idiot as to put in a curving water line under the driveway of a house? Surely galvanized pipe doesn't bend that way?

So I'm still fearful that the plumber will start digging, find that something is REALLY wrong...and I won't be able to get water back to my house. (What does a person do in that case? Are they just stuck with the albatross of an unlivable house?). Or that he'll have to tear up the entire drive, which will mean another several thousand dollars, I'm sure, and months of inconvenience. (I'll just get a gravel drive put in then. I don't care if my neighbors gripe.)

So I don't know. I have a tentative, "You can come shower at my place" from a woman at church, but she lives way out in the boonies so I think I'd have to be fairly desperate to drive all the way out there just to shower.