Water Water Everywhere But Not a Drop to Drink

October 23, 1996

Last night Joan and Claire and I went for our usual walk then got inspired to walk down to Shawsheen to look at the river, which was supposed to crest around then. We saw a lot of water. A real way wicked lot of water. It was scary. Water rushing over the dam near the assisted living complex and Suburban Health Care. Water in the middle of Main Street. Cars door deep in water next to DeMoulas. Yellow caution tape everywhere. Empty houses on Main Street where people had been evacuated. Water creeping up the driveways nex to the empty houses inexorably rising toward the street. Police standing around directing traffic away from the flooded area and trying to figure out what to do about some guy whose car was about to float away. They called the emergency team who sent and ambulance. Duh? Emergency lesson 1 on police Sesame street: broken person call ambulance, broken car call tow truck. While I was watching the crowd gather at the edge of the flood to stand around looking, more cops came with blue lights flashing and sirens wailing so the cops could stand around looking. My glasses fogged up. I reached up to wipe them with my sweatshirt. Bad move. The left lens went flying and the little screw holding the frame together vanished into the flooded parking lot. Claire rescued the lens and I went into DeMoulas and bought a half dozen bagels so I could use the twist tie on the bag to put the glasses back together. When we came out of DeMoulas, a tow truck was pulling the car out of the water. The ambulance and onlookers were gone.

This morning at the cat shelter there was no water. The parking lot was a lake - the sewage/drainage/septic/whatever system was completely saturated. Dawna took the laundry to a nearby laundromat. I left the dirty dishes neatly stacked in the sink and sealed the dirty litterboxes in a trash bag under the sink until the water comes back on.

The cats didn't seem to notice how bad things were. Jaguar was friendly to a total stranger who came in to donate kitty litter. Juliette sat and watched Roberta clean her cage with not even a threat of attack. Hop's eye is better and someone has applied to adopt him! Yay! Lots of the kittens are out of the sick room and in the general population. Tibet didn't show up and didn't call. Ditto for Amy. It was tough going but we got it reasonably clean in time for a reporter who was scheduled to take pictures at 1:00.

Walked with Joan and Priscilla at West Parish at 2:30. We had to detour around the water so walked further than usual but the weather stayed nice and we managed not to step in any flooded areas although I came close. A whole new pond has formed across the street from the cemetary and the ducks from the cemetary moved across the street. A lot of crows were cawing up a storm in the cemetary. The foliage is still beautiful. Two red trees near the entrance look like a picture postcard.

I feel grubby and grouchy because I'm dirty from working at the shelter and sweaty from walking and I can't take a shower 'cause I've got no water. No heat either. I was being so smug yesterday thinking hey, I'm relatively unscathed, this isn't so bad. Then bingo. Nothing comes out of the tap. The toilet won't flush. So much for a hot shower and herbal tea to relax.

Starbucks is open again but trying to use minimal water so they are giving everybody "to go" cups even if it's "for here." Tom was there at his usual table. We chatted for a bit. I bitched about not having water. I felt like a refugee.

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