I had a meltdown last night, which ended in embarrassment, really, as I found out the reason for the meltdown wasn't as dire as it first seemed.
See, when I got home last night, there was a notice on my side door from the water company that said they had read the meter and it was unusually high. Like in, we had used 7100 gallons of water last month. And that I might have a leak somewhere, so I might want to call a plumber.
Well, I promptly had a serious fit, because I would think we'd notice something if we had a serious leak like that, and I ran upstairs (upset to the max, if you get my drift) and called everyone (Mom and Dad) and pretty much ruined the entire evening for myself.
And since I try to conserve water, this was especially upsetting. Especially since I couldn't read my normal water bill to know how much money this was going to cost and I had no idea what to do.
Cooler heads won, of course, and Dad came by to check the toilets (the first suggestion from a guy from church who works at the Waterworks.) Lo and behold (and I now know where the overflow is on the toilet, by the way) it turns out that the Pink Toilet downstairs was way too high--and it had been running, according to my sister, who said she'd noticed it running quite a few times (jiggling the handle stopped the noise.)
Oh, and the guy from church said that 7100 gallons wasn't really that bad.
By that time, I was beginning to calm down (although still upset) and I tried to find out what the average consumption of water per family is in the United States. It turns out that the average consumption per person is about 100 gallons a day--which sounds awfully high to me, considering.
So after discovering that our usual consumption is about 3600 gallons a month and that my water bill would just double (instead of $15 it will be $30--the horror!) I discovered that we're actually not doing badly on the water conservation stuff. On average, we only use about 129 gallons per day, total. And in the summertime, I use the cistern to water my plants and flowers, which also helps keep costs down.
That still sounds like a lot to me. But after I also discovered that it's something like 25 gallons per load of laundry and 15-25 gallons for a shower, that starts to make a bit more sense. Not to mention the fact that I have hot water heat, which automatically refills itself when something gets low.
So in the panic of last night, I actually only got about 300 words written. Today at lunch, I wrote some more, but something wasn't quite right about the chapter I was writing. After a bit of poking, I decided to cut a bit, and ended up cutting 8k (for the moment--I'm going to use some of it later, here) because I had neglected to remember that the next scenes would be in daylight, not darkness.
I am working on revising the 'wrong' chapter at the moment, or at least until 9pm, when I have to put Mabel to bed and clean out the litterboxes. My nightly duties, ya know?
Soanyway, the meeting yesterday (and I was in a fine mood until I got home and lost my sanity for a while) was at the Goodwill corporate offices. And the Cincinnati Goodwill corporate offices have a Goodwill store right there! And sweaters were $.99 each, so I came home with five or six sweaters for bears and a cool striped corduroy blazer. I was pleased. (Until I got home, of course.)
I am still mad that I practically had a panic attack. And I didn't really completely recover until later today when my eyes started feeling not-so-puffy anymore and I actually started to feel better.
Argh!
See, when I got home last night, there was a notice on my side door from the water company that said they had read the meter and it was unusually high. Like in, we had used 7100 gallons of water last month. And that I might have a leak somewhere, so I might want to call a plumber.
Well, I promptly had a serious fit, because I would think we'd notice something if we had a serious leak like that, and I ran upstairs (upset to the max, if you get my drift) and called everyone (Mom and Dad) and pretty much ruined the entire evening for myself.
And since I try to conserve water, this was especially upsetting. Especially since I couldn't read my normal water bill to know how much money this was going to cost and I had no idea what to do.
Cooler heads won, of course, and Dad came by to check the toilets (the first suggestion from a guy from church who works at the Waterworks.) Lo and behold (and I now know where the overflow is on the toilet, by the way) it turns out that the Pink Toilet downstairs was way too high--and it had been running, according to my sister, who said she'd noticed it running quite a few times (jiggling the handle stopped the noise.)
Oh, and the guy from church said that 7100 gallons wasn't really that bad.
By that time, I was beginning to calm down (although still upset) and I tried to find out what the average consumption of water per family is in the United States. It turns out that the average consumption per person is about 100 gallons a day--which sounds awfully high to me, considering.
So after discovering that our usual consumption is about 3600 gallons a month and that my water bill would just double (instead of $15 it will be $30--the horror!) I discovered that we're actually not doing badly on the water conservation stuff. On average, we only use about 129 gallons per day, total. And in the summertime, I use the cistern to water my plants and flowers, which also helps keep costs down.
That still sounds like a lot to me. But after I also discovered that it's something like 25 gallons per load of laundry and 15-25 gallons for a shower, that starts to make a bit more sense. Not to mention the fact that I have hot water heat, which automatically refills itself when something gets low.
So in the panic of last night, I actually only got about 300 words written. Today at lunch, I wrote some more, but something wasn't quite right about the chapter I was writing. After a bit of poking, I decided to cut a bit, and ended up cutting 8k (for the moment--I'm going to use some of it later, here) because I had neglected to remember that the next scenes would be in daylight, not darkness.
I am working on revising the 'wrong' chapter at the moment, or at least until 9pm, when I have to put Mabel to bed and clean out the litterboxes. My nightly duties, ya know?
Soanyway, the meeting yesterday (and I was in a fine mood until I got home and lost my sanity for a while) was at the Goodwill corporate offices. And the Cincinnati Goodwill corporate offices have a Goodwill store right there! And sweaters were $.99 each, so I came home with five or six sweaters for bears and a cool striped corduroy blazer. I was pleased. (Until I got home, of course.)
I am still mad that I practically had a panic attack. And I didn't really completely recover until later today when my eyes started feeling not-so-puffy anymore and I actually started to feel better.
Argh!
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