Water Works

People aside, the week alone was immensely stressful. When the pool opens for the season, the operation of the park becomes extremely labor intensive. We have a robot that crawls through the pool at night and sucks up any little particles of dirt or grass. But someone has to put it in the pool and take it out and police the area for all the trash that gets tossed to the ground. Bathrooms have to be cleaned and stocked daily. And someone has to go purchase the stuff that stocks all this, as well as the camp store. It really requires two people.

The grounds maintenance is the most time consuming part of running this campground. We kind of have a schedule going for that and we have camp workers to help. But the store hours lengthen this time of year and I have to be in the store from 11 am until 8 pm every day. That extends to 9 am until 9 am on weekends and holidays. Not busy the entire time I am in the store, I am able to throw some laundry on and cook our meals and even go to the bathroom from time to time.

I may have stayed here while HeWho tended to family matters, but I worried the entire time and spent lots of time on the phone. It was especially hard for me, since I will confess that I do like to be in charge. So, one would hope that I might catch a break after dealing with people problems ….

I woke early Thursday morning to shuffle out with the dogs to preform their morning ritual. The bird that has been greeting me every day was in his favorite position on the support holding the antennae for the wi-fi signal. I nodded in his/her direction and we acknowledged one another. The warbling and chirping began and I talked softly to him/her while the canines took care of business. It was 5 am. I felt like I had just gone to sleep, but all the mowing had been accomplished the day before and rumors of rain had been on the weather channel.

Silly me. I went back to bed for a little more snooze time. Wall-E, the curious one, jumped down out of the bed. I could hear his toenails clicking on the floor as he ventured out of the bedroom. Wall-E is a secret eater. He likes to rise early and eat all the dogfood left in the bowl from the previous day. I suppose you could say that, like me, he prefers the quiet of the morning to be all his while he wakes completely. But, he began barking.

I figured he was looking at the monitor and must have seen some activity outside, I ignored him. He barked again and I yelled at him to "shut it or I will get my flyswatter!" He persisted and I was none too happy when I crawled out of bed to march in and reprimand him.

Wall-E is a good little dog. He was alerting me to a problem. I stepped over the threshold into my little den and was in three inches of water. The dogs food and water dishes were floating around. The water main burst and the pressure was so strong, there were waves. I was still in that half sleep state when I called HeWho plumbs to ask what I should do. Normally I would have rousted him from bed and started cleaning up immediately while he dealt with turning the water off, but he was not here.

I was directed to the breaker box in the electrical/water/laundry room to turn off the pump to the well that supplies water to the entire park. I had to pass a breaker box that someone HeWho tinkers with all things electric had left the door off, exposing the electricity to the water. I was quite annoyed about this and informed him that I would never forgive him if I was killed from my efforts.

Then I called upon my new favorite camper in the world, Craig. He brought the other new favorite camper in the world, Kevin and they fixed my pipe and restored water to the park. It took awhile and I fielded complaints while they worked and I swept water out the doors. I found that method to be faster than the shop vacuum. After I swept for what seemed like an endless amount of time, I mopped. I dragged all the rugs out to dry in the sun. Wet rugs are heavy, just so you know.

Water was restored by 2 pm and swimmers arrived despite the dismal forecast. We had a mere drizzle of rain come down. When I locked up at 8 pm, I mowed the last little patch of grass on the side of the building and pulled a few weeds. As darkness fell, I realized that I had not eaten anything of substance all day. I did eat a protein bar when I swallowed my pills in the early morning hours. But, nothing sounded good, so I ate a peanut butter sandwich, showered and crawled into my bed.

Friday dawned with the promise of a sunny day. I was outside doing some chores and watering my plants when my phone rang. It was our cousin and I unlocked the door to the store to head in and have a cold drink while we talked. I opened the door to see water rushing my way. The water main again. No instructions needed, I knew what to do. I felt like crying when I called Craig again. No need to bother HeWho was dealing with other things.

I did not cry, as that would just be more water to sweep. We had water again by noon. Practice had shaved two hours off the time. I do not want to know what a third breach in the pipe would be like! I had not put the rugs and mats back down, so when I finally had dry floors again, I was able to put the store back together, the living quarters had to wait. My laundry baskets holding dirty laundry got soaked and I could not seem to get my washer going, forgetting that the GFC was in the ladies room and it had been tripped. I hung the wet stuff on the line to avoid mildew. Friday was a very long day, there were a few moments when I thought I was not going to make it, but I did and locked up by 10 pm after checking in some late arrivals.

After another night filled with intermittent dreams and insomnia, I ventured out carefully, half expecting water up to my ankles, but the day started out pretty good with a text at 9 am telling me that HeWho is my forever hero was on his way home!!