My Kitchen is a Mini Steambath

[liz_marcs]

Nothing drives home the amount of water you use like having to BOIL everything you plan to ingest.

Considering that we're going to have to do this for several days (at least), there is no way I'd be buying bottled water even if I was working. That would cost some serious dough.

In any case, I now have something like a gallon and a half of boiled water chilling in my fridge. Keep in mind: this is my second day in a row boiling water to make sure I'll have access to an adequate supply of drinking water.

I feel like such a baby whining about this. How many places in the world don't even have access to a reliable water supply?

We at least have access to plenty of water and the back-up supply is more than adequate to cover water usage needs (provided some idiot doesn't water their lawn or wash their car). Hell, even the back-up supply is reasonably safe if you're a healthy adult, since, in essence, we're all drinking the equivalent of really clean lake water if we don't boil. The real worry is children, pets, and immunocompromised adults.

But still, I can't help but whine about boiling water. Tomorrow, I'm going to attempt to wash dishes "camping style". That means I'm gonna wash everything in regular hot sudsy water. Then I'll stick the microwaveable items in the microwave for a minute to kill the unwanted bacteria. The items I can't microwave I'm going to stick in a bot of freshly boiled water for a minute.

Gah!

April has been a very unfun month for me.

Can Mercury Retrograde stop now?

Comments

[a2zmom.livejournal.com]

A few more days? Ugh, what a pain.

[hpchick.livejournal.com]

It sucks.

There are good things and bad things about have ALL your family (aunts, uncles, cousins, great aunt, great uncles, 2nd cousins, etc) live within 30 miles. All my friends & family live in the water ban areas. I don't have anyone I can go to to fill empty containers. I never thought I'd be thankful that my work makes me drive all over the state. I plan on draining Acton of all its water tomorrow.

I heard it won't last as long as they're predicting. A guy who lives down the street from my parents and works for the MWRA said it may be fixed sooner than they're predicting. It may be fixed by mid week.

They say you should just add a little bleach to the water you use to clean your dishes and they should be OK.

[rileysaplank.livejournal.com]

The answer is beer!!!! It's what they drunk in medieval britain because they knew the water wasn't that safe to drink. Mind you the everyday beer they drank was lucky to be more than 1% volume. Just enough of the process to kill off any harmful bacteria in the water.

[flaming-muse.livejournal.com]

What a big mess! What I've read (since my MiL lives in a town that was under the boil water ban initially) is to put everything into water with some bleach after you wash your dishes. (http://www.mass.gov/Eeohhs2/docs/dph/cdc/mwra_water_break/water_break_faq_gen.pdf)

[taerowyn.livejournal.com]

Can I tell you how psyched I am to go to work today in the mythical land of Cambridge with their suspiciously separate water supply? It will be nice to have 8 hours where I can turn on the tap without thinking about it. And yes, I'm totally bringing at least one large empty bottle to fill up and bring home to cut down on my own kitchen-sauna.

[texanfan.livejournal.com]

We take potable water so for granted. It really makes me think of how much of some people's day is involved strictly with securing enough water. As it's classified as "women's work" in most of those places of the world young girls are prevented from going to school as a result of the need to transport water.

[siliconivy.livejournal.com]

Erg, that sucks. But I agree with rileysaplank about the beer!

Friend of mine just move to Somerville in the beginning of March. Lovely way to start a new phase of life.

Hope its fixed sooner than predicted.

[ponders-life.livejournal.com]

Not only are we boiling lots of water like you, but my entire neighborhood lost power last night because a transformer down the street blew around 11 pm... just in time to try to sleep in a hot, humid bedroom. *sigh* (The power came back on around 5:00 am.)

But I know that my life is so much better than most, so I'll try not to complain. This week I'm counting my blessings.

[lee-rowan.livejournal.com]

It does make one aware, doesn't it?

And considering that mess in the Gulf... we may all be thinking about water pretty soon.