"There's no water!"

"What do you mean there is no water?"  I asked, puzzled as I looked at FD who proceeded to show me by turning on the bathroom taps.  He was right.  We had no water throughout the entire house.

WTF?

I opened the front door to my townhouse and came outside, and like myself others were coming out, my neighbors.  We were like a group of individuals waiting for a flying saucer to land, puzzled looks on our faces.  Do you have water?  Do you have water?  Hey do you have water?  Voices circulated as we tried to figure out what on earth was going on.

Well what was going on was that a pipe had broken and it was flooding behind my house down the hill and directly into another unit.  Poor woman looked panic stricken as she continued to watch the grass next to her kitchen flood quickly.

Bearer of bad news: Mr. Rooter told our maintenance manager the water had to be turned off for the entire night until tomorrow morning... or until they could get the part to fix the pipe, otherwise the unit (lady with the white scared face) would soon be the proud of owner of our new community pool!

Okay no big deal right?

Wrong!

It's amazing the thing you need water for.  Coffee, making noodles for a four year old, making juice, drinking, flushing the toilet (GROSS!) brushing your teeth, making bottles and bathing... and the list goes on.

But good things always come from bad situations.

Our community (our co-op) usually doesn't care about things.

When we have meetings, nobody shows up.

When things need to get done, nobody usually comes.

Lately though, maybe it's something in the air or maybe it's because we might be losing our homes, our neighbors have been pulling together to be a community, and today was an example.

FD went door to door to let others know (while in his pj's) because he's sick--that the water wouldn't be on for the rest of the day or night.

Then he and several of us went out to bail water out from the huge hole Rooter dug and dump it down the drain so that Miss Unit wouldn't be swimming tonight and her house would be safe.

One of my neighbors called her dad and he brought buckets of water to hand out to every unit for those with babies who needed it for bottles, those who don't speak English and might not know what to do.

And my g/f "Tee" filled up several jugs for me because she lives on the other side of the co-op and they have water over there - lucky buggers.

Thanks "Tee!"  You are the best!

It's funny when faced with minor dilemma's or big nuisances how the people around you ban together to help each other.  It's why I chose to live in a co-op as opposed to a house.  I wanted a community of friends and neighbors and that's what I got, people who care.

Now I just have to explain to my four year old why he can't have his three baths per day and hope the melt downs aren't too bad because he has a spec of dirt on himself.  What fun!

Happy weekend everyone!