I have long held the suspicion that sending someone to "go boil some water" is just a trick to get them out of the way. Like in the movies, in the days before hospital births, the midwife always sends the father to go boil water, and then they never USE the boiling water. In fact you never see or hear anything about the boiling water ever again. It's just one of those things that a midwife in a movie has to say, I guess. Like how ER staff always shout "we're losing him!"
Anyway I'm writing this because we are under a municipal warning to boil our drinking water. Fortunately there's not some major crisis; it's just that we have had real heavy rain earlier this week plus we still have a lot of snowmelt runoff and flooding from that. So all this extra water is pushing extra runoff into the system and making it more turbid than usual. Translation: it's cloudy, 'cause it's got stuff in it. And when there's stuff in the water, there may or may not be bacteria attached to the stuff, that was shielded from the municipal water treatment system by the same stuff it's attached to. If you drink it, it may or may not make you sick. So the city is erring on the side of "may not" and telling us to boil it.
I am so used to making my tea in the microwave that making it with boiling water (you know, the way you're supposed to make it?) actually tastes funny to me. I think I'll be getting some bottled water today, if there's even any left. Because boiling water is fine for tea or cooking, but when you actually want to drink the water it takes a long time until it's cold again. And I don't think the cats will appreciate waiting that long!
No projection from the city as to how long this will last, but probably not more than a few days I'm guessing. At least it's not that horrible blue-green algae problem they have elsewhere in the province, just a little storm runoff. Still, makes life interesting. I don't think I've ever been under a "boil water" alert before - and I've been in a tornado, a storm left over from a hurricane, and the flood of '93!
nytquill17 posted on May 02, 2008
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Comments
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evil_twin said on May 02, 2008....
Eww. I don't think I'd want to drink cloudy water, whether it was boiled or not! That would gross me out. I'd be using bottled water for everything.
Our sink in the kitchen has really old pipes. And the water that comes out of there is clean and clear, but it smells funky and tastes even worse. But the water in all of the other sinks and faucets is perfectly normal. So we usually have to let the water run for about 5 minutes or so before the stench goes away. We don't use that sink water for anything except dishes and washing our hands. We cook with bottled water!
-evil_twin LA
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diabolicdame said on May 02, 2008....
I hate the taste of boiled water! But I guess you have to do that to be safe.. but still.. its pretty yuck..
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the_infernal_optimist said on May 02, 2008....
We had to boil all of our water for a while after some hurricane or other. I don't remember if it was F--- or F---- (the names would give my location away). The one was just bad all around, and the other was just major flood-city. I think it was that one.
Anyway, boiling water is a pain in the ass, but it's better to be safe, I guess! I agree with bottled drinking water...that's what we do, for other reasons, and it'd be a lot faster when you were thirsty! You could always boil a lot of it in advance and then let it cool long enough to put in water bottles or washed out milk jugs or something.
~Infernal
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silverwhisper said on May 03, 2008....
i agree re: sending the father-to-be to boil water--that specific point is addressed in david eddings's the mallorean, IIRC. :>
i'm trying to remember the last time we had a boil water warning where i live, i think it's been a few years. but yeah, it does tend to go on for a few days, doesn't it? i just hope yours is over sooner rather than later.
ed -
nytquill17 said on May 03, 2008....
Thanks everyone :) Geesh, I've been bad about responding to comments lately!
ET: reminds me of when you move in to a new house that hasn't been occupied in a while, and for the first half hour or so that you run the water it's all brown. It's supposed to be safe (well, not to drink, I guess, but I remember taking a bath in it once) but it sure is weird.
Cooking with bottled water! I don't know if I could handle that. But it depends on what you cook I guess, and you can get used to anything :)
DD: Yeah, it's gross. Not helped by the fact that we live in an old building with old pipes and the water isn't the best anyway...nothing wrong with city water but our building sure puts the funk on it! It doesn't smell, but it's definitely hard water and it tastes just a little off. DH can't drink it when he has a sore throat. All our sink drains get this slimy orangy stuff around them if I don't clean them enough, and it broke our countertop dishwasher (so much crud from the water that the seals started leaking)!
TIO: Both my parents grew up in Florida so they're a bit more used to boiling water. My grandmother had to boil water after a hurricane right after one of her kids was born, and this in the days before disposables! Eww.
Interestingly, we don't have gallon milk jugs here (well of course, we don't have gallons so it makes a little sense). You can buy milk in small skinny jugs but not big ones. The most common packaging is cartons (1L or 2L) or bags. If you use a lot of milk, the bags are the cheapest - the big ones are like buying in bulk - but it is a little weird to get used to! They make little "milk pitchers" specially designed to hold a bag of milk so you can pour straight from the bag.
Ed: Yeah, I'm expecting this to last for a few days at least. We haven't had any more storms and it's been pretty chilly lately so I'm pretty sure there's not a lot of new runoff coming in, but they still have to wait for it all to settle before they can give the all clear. I understand; they're responsible for the safety of a lot of people, so they have to be cautious. Still sucks though.
What's odd to me is that there's not a lot of publicity about it. If not for DH, I never would've heard about it. They mentioned it on the radio, which I don't listen to, and on the website, which I go to only if I'm looking for something. It was probably on local TV but I don't watch it. I guess if I worked I would hear it from a colleague, but it's not hard to imagine there might be people out there who don't even know. I always thought they were a little more proactive about stuff like this...notices on your door, or phone calls or something. I was expecting at least a little announcement in stores near the bottled water - you'd think they'd want to advertise it!
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the_infernal_optimist said on May 03, 2008....
ed: It's actually in the Belgariad somewhere [too? -- I haven't read the complete Malloreon yet; still waiting for a few of them to show up at my local used bookstore]. ;-) I still need to discuss those books with you someday if you're still interested.
/end postjack
nyt: Bags of milk?? That's so weird to me!
~Infernal
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nytquill17 said on May 03, 2008....
I went looking for a picture of one to show you, and turns out there's an entire website about them that explains it much better than I can!
Milk bags
Go figure...something for everyone I guess!
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silverwhisper said on May 04, 2008....
nyt: that's mighty darned odd re: the lack of media attention. maybe the canadians are just more relaxed about that stuff than us uptight yanks?
infernal: blogjacker! repent! :D sure, wing me an e-mail sometime.
ed