May 30, 2018. Madison, Mississippi. Water.

What a shock. At 6:30 last evening I went to wash my hands and discovered no water coming from the taps. My next action was to check the kitchen sink. No water. I checked with neighbors but no one was home so I did what I always do which was to call Christina to see if she knew the company providing the water. She did not know but she looked it up and she also gave me the phone number of The Pearl River Water System. I felt sure we had forgotten to pay the bill but when we came home from Mexico I called them to be sure our payments were being paid automatically so I thought that the bills were being paid. Also Christina is paying our bills now and she is efficient and diligent. Once a month or so after moving into the condo we had dinner guests. Just before we were serving dinner the lights went out. Fortunately candles were in the closet so we enjoyed our candlelight meal, amidst great hilarity. Apparently we had not paid our electric bill. We thought it was covered by the condo fee. Everyone remembered that dinner. When I called the water company, I was informed that a water main had broken and 5 subdivisions were without water including Roses Bluff. The water was to be turned on by 9:00. Sure enough, on it came so life returned to normal. Except that for 2 days we must boil the water. What was interesting to me was how helpless we are without running water. I could not rinse the dinner dishes or take a shower. Fortunately we had a case of bottled water in the car so Emma and I retrieved it. We are so used to our life style and comfort that without water we are shocked. Clean water is a great blessing but I only remember to be grateful until the taps do not work. And for the day after too.