All day I go around writing blog posts in my head, taking photos, thinking about things I should record, and then at night I get back to the computer and don’t write them. It feels like too much effort and I’m tired.
But I should make that effort more often than I’m currently doing. It’s good to read the posts afterwards and to see the photos, and the process of assembling a post helps me step out of my head and become more sensible.
The sensible part of me. What a wankery thing to say. But there is a sensible part of me, and it re-emerges when I calm down and look at things slowly, one step at a time – as is necessary when writing things down.
Calm down.
This is not a crisis.
One step. Next step. Next step.
That’s the benefit of writing things down and reading them over. I can start to look at what’s happening from another point of view. Slowly.
Anyway: I’m sitting here writing a blog post this morning because I can’t get the water pump to move water from the tank to the house, and I was starting to get frazzled trying.
The water has been fine for a few weeks, and it only started stopping again on Saturday, just when the weather started getting hot and humid. It’s a hot and humid day already today, Monday, 08:30, and I’ve been standing in the sun out at the pump, sweating, trying to get the water working again, and it wasn’t happening.
So, I’m taking a break. Being sensible. One step at a time, and a cup of tea. (There’s water on hand in old Berri ‘Apple Mango Banana’ juice bottles – the best juice in the land. I ran out of the juice weeks ago, but the bottles just go on and on.)
I expect the water supply will be fixable again when I go back to it; that’s the way it usually goes. There’s nothing wrong with the pump itself, it just needs to build up pressure long enough to lift the water out of the tank, then things will be fine. Usually it just takes ten or fifteen minutes of fiddling about and it starts again. I don’t know why that hasn’t worked today. That’s basically the way it went yesterday, three times. And three times the day before.
The problem is the foot valve. Weeks ago when I said I was going to go to town and buy a new one, I fixed the old one instead – by trying to fix the faulty washer and then discovering that if I just removed the washer, the valve would work, which made me laugh. What’s the point of the washer if the valve works better without it? I have no idea. But maybe there’s a condition when the washer is needed; maybe that condition kicks in when the weather gets hot.
I’ll buy a new valve as soon as I get to a suitable shop, but that won’t be today. Today I have to finish the mowing down the road, because last week the ground was still too wet, and twice, on two separate days, the mower nearly got stuck in mud. Half the property is still unmowed, and by now the grass will probably be knee-high.
I was thinking about this while trying to fix the water problems here at the house, standing at the pump feeling increasingly panicked about all the things I’ve been meaning to do and haven’t, all the things I have to do and don’t want to do, all the things, all the things.
That wasn’t helping. So, here I am in front of a blog post, thinking slowly.
One step. Next step. Next step.
Now it’s 09:30, and I’m de-frazzled and cool and ready to go back out there again, into the day. Thank you, WordPress! Thank you, Berri bottles of water! Thank you, Dilmah tea! And a good day to you, Reader. Let’s be careful out there. (Am I quoting ‘Hill Street Blues’ now? Probably. I’m the only person in the entire universe who’s old enough to remember that show.)
The Loneliest Island 