Saturday morning stuff

Well, this is a new experience for me: We're under a boil order.

I don't remember ever being under a boil order before, unless it happened to my family when I was a child and I didn't notice.

Last night, when I turned the tap on to wash my face before bed (I had already brushed my teeth, right after dinner), there was almost no water pressure. So I called it in. Wasn't the first to report it, the woman said there had been a water main break. We've had water main breaks before but apparently this one was a lot worse.

This morning, I turned the water on and it was all "spitty," like there was air in the lines, and there was a lot of sediment in it. So I thought, "This might not be safe to drink" and used bottled water (THAT is why I don't completely accept the "bottled water is totally evil" meme: you need SOMETHING in case of emergency) to take my medication and brush my teeth with. And used the remnants of the previously boiled teakettle water to rinse my orange-juice glass prior to refilling it with milk. (Because if water's not safe to drink, how can it be safe to wash dishes with?)

It's a good thing I did that, because while I was out making my trip to the Mart of Wal, there was an automated call from the city informing us of a boil order. (I hope they also call once it's lifted). Came in at 7:40 am, which, if this were a weekday, I'd probably already have downed about 24 ounces of water during my workout by that time. (Though if the water was all spitty and sedimenty, I'd probably have the common sense to use bottled).

But, ugh. Of course because it's a weekend there's little to no other information out there. So I'm going to assume any water for eating, washing produce, cooking, or washing dishes has to be boiled first until I hear otherwise. (I guess that probably means local restaurants will be closed to day. And, oh no, what will they do for the funeral lunch at church?)

And I suppose washing hands with tap water is out, if it's bacteria they're worried about. And showering is probably out....all those bacteria becoming aerosolized in the spray.

Yeah, I hope they remember to tell us when it's lifted.


ETA: As of almost 5:30, no notification. I'm going to put on the local news if and when it comes on (it's spotty on the weekends, often pre-empted by sports). I also stumbled across (by finding a buried link on the city's webpage) the city's EMS facebook page. But, to get the full detail (all the commentary about the situation), they want you to log in. Heck no, I'm not joining FB (which I have resisted up to this point) just so I can get information that, frankly, should be more widely disseminated and easy to find. I GET that it's easier to mobile-message to Facebook, but still.

I hope they do have the robot call us when the water's safe.

Hm. I wonder, if it's not safe by Monday morning, will they close campus? What would they do with no functional water fountains? Can't expect people to shell out the buck fifty for a bottle of water from the vending machine (Even if it is working).

I know at my graduate school when they were having to revamp the building's water system and there was some concern about sediment/safety, they got Culligan to bring in water coolers and bottles of water...best availability and best water that building ever had. But I'm sure on short notice in a much smaller town that's not going to happen.

Ironically, the thing they've been trumpeting on the local news? How they just got a mega grant to put in a new water tower (very close to my classroom building, in fact - the university had to donate the land). I'd hope some of that money might go to helping with the obviously aging water main infrastructure....

(And no, I'm not looking forward to the water tower construction. I expect it will be loud, messy, and they'll probably block off streets close to my building, so I'll have to find alternate routes.)
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Speaking of Mart of Wal: they had pony blindbags again. A new series, this is apparently the "Crystal Kingdom" series (I admit I'm a bit apprehensive about this fall series, and the idea that there's going to be a "Crystal Kingdom." It seems like the show could take a turn to desert its adult fanbase). I bought....a bunch.

I opened a few. I got a sparkle Rarity, a metallic Rarity (Yeah, they're really trotting out the different versions of the Mane Six) and a male pony named Twilight Wishes or somesuch. (Maybe a cousin of Twilight Sparkle?) Anyway, he was all glittery too. (I have to admit I wish that we had the series that had more of the "background ponies" in it. I'd like to have a "regular" Trixie or Lyra or somepony like that in my collection).

***

I also watched the "ponystavaganza" the Hub re-ran - the two-part season finales of Season 1 and Season 2. I think this was the first time I really watched the "Royal Wedding" episode since its premiere.

And something struck me: Twilight's friends aren't very good at giving her fears and concerns any credence. First there was "Lesson Zero" (re-run last week), now this, where they get all caught up in the wedding preparation and the ATTENTION they are getting, and they make excuses for "Cadence's" bad behavior.

And Twilight is the only one who can see that "Cadence" isn't really Cadence.

And the thing that made me a little creeped out....as I watched it, as I saw how Twilight thought something was wrong, that "Cadence" wasn't acting right, and all her friends said, "Oh, she's a perfectly nice pony...you're overreacting...she's just tense with the wedding coming up" I found myself thinking: Golly day, that's how sociopaths make it in the world. They convince most other people that they're just peachy keen fine, and the few people with whom the mask manages to slip, those people get told they're overreacting.

And, while I'm not sure that a certain difficult person I dealt with a few months ago was a true sociopath...I was in the position of being told, "Oh, you're really just overreacting. Suck it up and do what this person wants. They're not really being difficult." And there are few feelings as lonely and awful as being told that your hunch and your impressions are dead wrong, and that you're overreacting, and maybe, just maybe, YOU need to look inside YOURSELF and see what is wrong with YOU.

And then when you get that moment of justification...well, in my case I was too tired and too discombobulated to even think of saying "I told you so" and I think Twilight felt the same.

But yeah, I maintain what I said back in April: Changelings. That's some creepy stuff right there.

But it also strikes me that the friendship interactions we see in the show aren't as idealized and perfect as they are in most kid's shows. (Again, that may be partly why it attracted such an enormous adult fan base: I suspect far more adults than children have had the experience of something "feeling" wrong to them and being told, "Oh, you're just overreacting.")