We have a well at our house.  We get our water from the ground.

For those of you that I have lost already, don’t think Laura Ingalls gathering with a bucket type of well.  Think big electric box thing and a huge tank that fills with water.  That water is then pumped into our house via another box called an electric pump.  All parts have to be working for our house to have water.

Things usually go well (ha, no pun intended), I sometimes forget we don’t have city water, but every now and then . . . If the pump blows a fuse, or our neighbor, who is lovely but has a bunch of animals and sometimes forgets to shut off his drip system.  If water is left running anywhere on our property, or his, the tank can run out of water and the well needs some time to replenish.

To make a long story short (too late), there are mornings (maybe one or two a quarter) that I wake up to no water.  Turn the faucet on, try to flush the toilet, no water.  That usually begins the search for “why” or “who’s fault.”  Once the culprit is identified, it can take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour for the water to start flowing again.  In my world that could mean a missed shower or brushing my teeth with bottled water.

It can be annoying, our girls in particular, have been known to lose it, but it’s part of living where we live.  It’s in the trade-off.  The water eventually comes back on, there’s a fix, and it’s really not a big deal.

I was at Starbucks this morning.  The woman in front of me ordered an Awake tea.  I noticed because that’s my drink.  It’s not often I meet a fellow tea drinker, so I noticed.  She also had an incredible purse.  I noticed that too.

The woman behind the counter informed her that Starbucks was changing tea vendors and they were currently out of all black tea.  She told her that they expected some in any day.

The great purse lady came unglued.  It was almost comical for a moment, and then it wasn’t.

I don’t know if she had a hormone surge (I know those can be super inconvenient) or maybe she just received bad news before her Starbucks run, or she was just a bitch, but she went atomic all over the woman behind the counter.

“What the hell are you talking about?  Isn’t this Starbucks?  You don’t have a God damn tea bag?”

Yeah, it was crazy town.  It was the kind of nut show where it didn’t matter that I was staring at her with my mouth open. At that point, she was not of this world.

“You know what?  I’m done.  Done with this place.  You guys are ridiculous!”  Stormed out, got on her broom.

I was up next.  Yikes.  I smiled and asked if the woman needed a minute.  She tried to smile back and then said, “I really do,” and left.  Someone else helped me and while I missed my Awake tea this morning, I went with the Zen.  It was a nice change.

Getting in my car, I had this thought.  What if people like her ran out of water?  What if entire neighborhoods woke up and didn’t have water for a day.  If the pump goes, it can be a couple of days without water.  What would someone like that woman do?

How reliant on the “cushies” in life have we become and would certain people even survive if the shit ever really hit the fan?  I also started thinking about people in other countries that carry water, farm for food.  Work.  Hard.  For the basics in life, simple comforts.

It seems important to keep perspective, scale down every once in awhile and be clear that there are “needs,” “wants,” and “you could survive forever without it, cushies.”

I don’t know what that woman was going through.  I’ve spent time on the edge of crazy, but it’s tea.  It’s a drink.  You’ll be okay, and it wasn’t nice to ruin someone else’s day.

Not nice at all.

My thoughts from the laundry room.  Take a Nap.

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acceptance crazy life patience people reality stupidity thoughts coping crazy learning life people perspective Starbucks thoughts