This Is Not The Time...

...to write a blog, perhaps. But I've been meaning to. So here goes.

We've been having issues with our well for a good week now. In a nutshell, the water smelled like fuel. You know, like some random petroleum product. Some people thought it smelled like diesel. I honestly didn't smell it that closely to be able to distinguish, but I knew the water started tasting bad, because I'd been drinking it. Thinking, huh, that's odd, where is that fuel smell coming from? I wish I were joking, but honestly, Number One does stuff with fuel everyday, so I just kind of thought the smell was coming from his laundry. Or something. But then I made him smell the water, and taste it, and it was gross. We decided.

So for a few days, there were ponderings about diesel contamination that didn't make sense:

No recent diesel spills; this has never happened before; CG's well water did not seem to smell (although it did not get tested); no recent rains (to raise the water table to reach the historical diesel spills, see how much we've been thinking about this); no big thaw yet this spring (see above). We were kind of freaking out, anticipating some sort of ABEG/State raid on our property to determine the Source of Contamination.

We sent off a water sample, which came back "clear" and added to our puzzlement. It just wasn't making sense. At our house, we've been using bottled water for everything, i.e. the kettle of water that we heat for making oatmeal then gets used to wet washcloths for washing faces. The only thing we do with our well water is flush the toilet.

Finally, I googled "water smells like fuel." And I found some things that indicated that perhaps it was a problem with our well pump. Pumps have some kind of oil in them (mineral or something that wouldn't show up as a contaminant) and if the pump started to leak oil, it would affect the water. And definitely, when we all stopped using water for 24 hours, the smell lessened. But when we ran a bunch of water to "leach" the system or whatever? Of course it got worse. So CG has gone off to buy a new well pump, hopefully to return today. We couldn't locate an internet source that would overnight a pump. WTF? Don't they understand there is kind of some urgency to this situation? Anyway, we could possibly have clean water by tomorrow! Or perhaps Friday? At any rate, we are hopeful.

However, if it's not one thing...

It Is Another. The plumbers came down to put in a new septic tank for one of the houses. Currently, their septic line (which has a nice break in the pipe, by the way) runs directly underneath our house. Trust me, it's bad enough when your own septic line has issues, but when you discover that it's someone else's septic line that is leaking someone else's sewage into your crawlspace? That is just a whole different kind of nasty. (that happened a few years ago. The current break is just a small hole, and thankfully it is outside of our house).

So anyway, the plumbers came down. I guess there was no other way around it, they tore out a cute little stand of young trees to put in their line. I'm upset about it.


And then, of course, the backhoe hit several power lines. Which now need to be fixed. The other day, in addition to being without potable water, we were also without power when Number One had to run and turn the generator off until they could figure out where the line came from, where it went, etc. The broken line has been taped up until we can get splicers and what-have-you to fix it properly. Whee.

And Now, Another! Our darn computer has been shutting down for no apparent reason, out of the blue. If that weren't annoying enough, last night it did it so much that we lost all of our bookmarks, web history, cache, and other things I don't even know to tell you. I'm trying to figure out how to fix it, but haven't had any luck yet. In the meantime, I have to a) try to remember web addresses for everything or b) Google everything I can't remember. Talk about a hassle! I couldn't access the "Live Chat" last night, and this morning I find out they aren't even available until 1:PM PST!!!

I can handle having no water and having to shower at CG's house and having to heat water in a pan on the stove to do dishes. I can handle eating off paper plates and bowls and using plastic cups and utensils (so I can use a smaller pan for dishwater). I can even handle being without electricity for a few hours every now and then. But having computer troubles that aren't an easy fix? That is when I have a problem.


Post Script: I have gotten most of the browser issues fixed. Still have to address the crashing problem itself. But I'm hopeful.