Friday, October 5, 2007

Water Water Everywhere!

Those of you who have read my blog for a while might have noticed that water is a continual issue here. For one reason or another, I have a water related problem almost everyday. Here are a few of them from the last 8 months.

4 year olds don't get that they can't drink tap water
4 year olds don't get that they can't use tap water to brush teeth
4 year olds are afraid of the bath water (Can you blame them?)
Tanks aren't filling from city
Illegal well water is no longer fit for use
Pump won't work
Faucets won't work because the screens are full of sediment
Gross water making laundry look dirtier than before I washed it
Heavy rain making sewage back up in downstairs bathrooms
Rain is coming in the house, forming a waterfall down the stairs
Dennis The Menace turned on the actual waterfall (yes we have one in the house)
Dennis The Menace broke the waterfall (solved previous problem nicely)
Water from construction next door making one whole wall of house wet, inside
Paint peeling off wet wall
Mold growing in corner of wet wall
Puddle on roof next door breeding mosquitoes
"Filtered" drinking water has sand and dead bug in it
Out of bottled water

And finally, the most recent...too much bottled water!

My kids have a habit of opening a bottle of water, taking a few sips, then abandoning it as undrinkable. Their defense of this practice is that while they weren't looking, somebody might have taken a drink. The somebody they are referring to is the previously mentioned 4 year old, Dennis The Menace. As well as being a bit of a rascal, Dennis seems to always have an abundance of saliva in the general area of his face. So, nobody drinks after him. Nobody. Over a period of a couple of weeks I noticed that the partially empty water bottles were piling up. One day I decided that it was getting a little embarrassing, so after Uday and Camla left the house, I recruited all of my kids to gather the abandoned bottles. I was stunned. Then I ran for my camera so that you could enjoy the craziness.

Anybody want to count them? I keep losing my place. There were also four or five unopened bottles that were returned to the fridge. Needless to say, we tightened up water bottle security. We still waste some water bottles, but not as many. Luckily, bottled water is relatively cheap here. Now I'm thirsty, but I promise to finish off the bottle!
Notice the unopened box of water just waiting for us?
I wonder what the raddiwallah thought.

4 comments:

Rachel said...

I don't drink after my own children for the same reason, so I kind of understand. In fact I will put my husband in the same category. (it could be my imagination) Needless to say I do not ever leave my water unattended around this house of drool.

Suburban Correspondent said...

Oh, wow, the half-full cups everywhere here drive me crazy - if I were paying for the water, it would put me in a loony-bin.

I hope you're taking copious notes so that you can write a book when you get back.

Hunnydu72 said...

When we were kids, my brother had a habit of eating as he was drinking out of a water, soda, juice bottle--and drinking after him might mean floaties. I get what you're saying.

I'm sure your American wastefulness is somehow enriching the local garbage economy. They'll be crying like babies when the wasteful Americans move away and they have to find some other source for, well, everything. =D

Aunt Carol said...

HA HA HA As I read this it brought back memorys of Mr. Smith as a child. He was a cute rascal as is Aaron. Just know he will turn out just as wonderful as Mr. Smith. Seems like I remember peanut butter on the cats, oh yes and putting the kittens in a box with big trophies all around so the mama cat couldn't get to the babies. I am sure Marilyn could add a few "Mr. Smith" stories.