Thursday, January 25, 2018

Our Own Little River


There's a river flowing past our front door.

Yesterday, when I took Olga out early in the morning, I noticed a fairly substantial amount of water running down the gutter -- definitely more than the trickle that would come with a rainstorm. Plus, there was no rain to speak of. So I walked about five houses up the street and found the water bubbling up from a seam between the concrete gutter and the asphalt roadway.

I called our local water supplier, and the woman on the phone said no one had yet reported the leak. She said they'd send a crew "within the next 24 hours," which seemed like a rather blasé response. "It's a fair amount of water," I reiterated to her.

Sure enough, when I got home yesterday evening, it was still flowing. But -- progress! A couple of guys were at the site of the leak, sitting in a truck in their yellow work uniforms, waiting for the authorities to come and close the road. This morning, barricades have been erected, the site of the leak has been excavated and there's more water flowing than ever:


I can even hear it while standing in the front room of the house.

Our own water pressure is down, but the water doesn't seem to be off entirely. I could make coffee, thank God. I wonder why they didn't turn off the main overnight? Maybe they can't, for some reason.

Anyway, it makes me wonder about the state of our pipes. Remember when I was in Florida a couple of years ago, and we had a broken main right in front of our house?

We had another named storm yesterday, too -- Georgina, I think -- but she wasn't of much consequence here. Rain and a bit of wind but nothing scary.

And last night, Dave tried a new vegetarian dish -- a kind of vegetable stew with mushrooms served over riced celeriac. Dave didn't much care for the celeriac -- he called it "baby teeth," and after he said that, that's all I could see in my bowl. Baby teeth. Disturbing! Maybe next time we'll stick with plain old rice.

(Top photo: Phone booths on Whitehall near Parliament Square.)

13 comments:

Yorkshire Pudding said...

No doubt the water authority will invite you to an awards ceremony where you will mix with celebrities before receiving your good citizenship medal. Well done Steve and enjoy your day at work!

Shooting Parrots said...

My guess is that they have no way to turn off the main which makes you wonder how on earth they can manage to fix it. Snorkels maybe?

As you say, we do have rather a blasé attitude to water. Ironic that this happens on the same day that Cape Town a countdown to Day Zero when they will have no water at all.

ellen abbott said...

I can't remember the last time I saw a phone booth here in the US (Hawai'i notwithstanding). yeah, the powers that be don't seem to think there is any urgency in fixing water leaks. if they had turned off the water I imagine they would have been inundated (see what I did there) with phone calls about no water.

Vivian said...

Baby Teeth sounds like an excellent Klingon dish. Served cold, of course.

Vivian said...

Not to keep repeating myself, but today's photo looks so perfectly composed, it could almost seem to be staged. Your timing and sense of what makes a scene is impeccable.

Ms. Moon said...

My goodness! If it were summer, I would consider a dip in that water.
I hope they get it fixed soon. Good for you on reporting it, Steve!

37paddington said...

I hope your front door is higher than the flow of water!

Red said...

Water line breaks are common here with the frost so we have the equipment ready to look after it. Water running for days is a bit worrying.

Anonymous said...

Hope things have improved there. That's a pretty substantial leak.

Sharon said...

That is quite a lot of water running down the street. Hopefully they can get it fixed soon. I've seen my share of water main breaks here too. My street had one just last spring.
I get so tickled when I recognize a place from one of your photos. I knew exactly where that photo was taken.

Catalyst said...

It seems odd that no one else had reported it. Good luck!

e said...

Wow, what a mess!

John Going Gently said...

You are a gay man make like Shelley winters in the Poseidon Adventure and swim