Showers and Hydrant Flushing - Do Not Mix

Some people take their showers in the evening before going to bed. Others, like myself, prefer to take a shower in the morning, immediately after getting up. This morning, I wished that I was was one of the former.

I got up, let the dog out, and put the coffee on (or so I thought - I’ll get to that in a minute). The dog barked - “let me in, you filthy human!” - and I obliged. Off to the shower I went. Water, soap, scrubbing - I think we’re all pretty familiar with how showers work. My showering was working as to be expected, until something bad happened - namely, the water turned brown. (No, I was not extremely dirty.) Apparently either 1) the city maintenance folks were flushing the hydrants or 2) a water main broke (which happens here more often than one would expect).

Now, if it was a simple matter of hydrant flushing - which I believe it was - it wasn’t that big of a deal. It wasn’t as if I were bathing in raw sewage. However, the fact is, it was still dirt in the water, and it’s troublesome trying to take a shower in dirty water, ya’ know? So, I hopped out of the shower and wrapped up the cleaning process with a wash cloth^[1]. While doing that, though, something far more important than personal hygiene struck me: did I make my coffee with that dirty water?! My heart sank. There was no real way to no other than trying it, which I was not willing to do. I’d have to dump out a whole pot of coffee and start over.

Forgetfulness, however, had saved the day. When I went to the kitchen, I discovered that I had put coffee into the machine and filled it up with water, but I’d forgotten one crucial step: turning the machine on. I was able to get out some water with a tablespoon and check its color in a clear glass - success! It was clear. Coffee crisis (these are bad, trust me) averted.

I really should pay more attention to the public notices in the newspaper. I could avoid situations like this morning…

1. The hot water was still quite clean, probably because a bunch was stored in our water tank. I assume that’s the case, anyway - a plumber I am not. While it was easy to use a hot wash cloth to finish bathing, the idea of finishing a shower in purely hot water was not overly appealing. [↩]