Don’t take things for granted

We don’t realize how much we use or need something until it’s gone. Being without, whatever it is, sure makes us appreciate it all the more when we get it back, doesn’t it?

Case in point, the water at our house was out for a day last week, and I am so thankful to East Knox Water District for working all day and way up into the night to get us back up and running.

Although the water was working fine when I left for work Wednesday morning, later in the day I read a Facebook post from a neighbor who said they didn’t have water pressure and wanted to know if other neighbors in the area had water. I checked with my family and we all didn’t have water either.

On my way home after work, I picked up a few gallons of water just in case the water company didn’t have the line fixed.

As I rounded the last curve before getting home, there was a traffic stop. The problem with the water line was almost directly in front of my house.

I proceeded to go to the kitchen to try to cook a few things for supper. Important things first, wash my hands. Ugh, no water. Well thank goodness I had brought some home. Then, I needed water to cook with. I realized those few gallons of water wouldn’t be enough to wash my dishes and cover all our water needs until we had water again.

Without water, we couldn’t flush the toilet. We couldn’t do a load of laundry, etc.

Hmm, we use more water than I realized in just one evening.

Thinking about water, and the usage of it, reminds me of when I was younger, everyone in our communities had well water back then. It was both a good and a bad thing.

When David and I moved to where we live now, our well water was so awful. Although there was plenty of free water for anything we needed to do, the quality of the water was absolutely horrible.

We had sulphur water, the water had been exposed to hydrogen sulfide, which gave our water that distinct “rotten egg” smell. If that wasn’t bad enough, it also had ferric iron in it, which caused the water to have an awful rust-colored appearance, and it stained everything it touched including our sinks, tub, toilet, clothes, and even our hair and nails. We spent a fortune on products to try to filter our water and remove the stains.

We loved our home, but we sure didn’t like the water, and we didn’t realize what a huge problem it would be until we were living with it. We suffered through using it for years, even manually carrying water in heavy water coolers, which we collected from natural springs in the area, until East Knox Water District put a water line in by our house.

We were never so happy as the day we were able to get good water.

Like a lot of things, sometimes we forget just how grateful we are to have good water until we don’t have any. Wednesday was a good reminder of that for us.

Isn’t that usually the case? We all tend to take things for granted when it is plentiful, such as electricity, dependable transportation, the roof over our heads, loved ones, simple pleasures, sunshine, fresh food, medicine, our health, freedom, salvation, etc. The list of what we all take for granted could go on and on, but I think you get the idea.

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One more thing, last week when writing about potatoes as being an unusual ingredient in candy, I stated in the column that the most common potatoes are Russet and Idaho® potatoes. Idaho® is not a variety of potatoes.