In the end we did not tandem drive to the yooperland today. Cygnus and I had a very calm trip with not a lot of traffic. I have always LOVED to drive but the pandemic did SOMETHING, not sure what, to my driving confidence. I’m not sure that’s totally over yet (and no, I don’t need a therapist for this!) but I enjoyed today’s drive a lot.

When I pulled into the “parking lot” (note that it is NOT paved), there was a Jamadots truck here and within a couple hours we had FIBER OPTIC installed. So far it is working fine. We are a weeeee bit nervous just because our DSL worked so well for so many years. Why mess around with POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service).

Believe it or not, we still have a working landline here, not that we ever use it. Because of that we were given an “emergency device” that will provide phone service and internet for a number of hours (8?) during a power outage. I may not have those details straight. The takeaway for me was that we have a device with a battery that we’ll have to schlep to the Planet Ann Arbor for the winter so the battery doesn’t drain when the moomincabin freezes solid. We have rarely lost power here KNOCK ON WOOD BIG TIME!

So the fiber optics guy came but the pump guy did not. That left the status for our running water in limbo for quite a while. I tried to remain calm and stay outta the fray. Worst case scenario would be to shower and wash dishes at the neighbor-cousins next door. Thank the gods that they are HERE and have water (and are gracious)!

But that turned out to be Plan B, as I shouldda known, knowing the GG. Plan A was to run a hose from their cabin to ours. I mean a garden hose. That is now in place and it is working well. After all, I grew up with water that ran through a garden hose from my uncle’s cabin to ours. He supplied water from his well to his three siblings’ family beach dwellings and it wasn’t until that generation started getting on in years that his siblings (my dad, etc.) had their own wells drilled. With luck the well folks will come out tomorrow. If not, we GREATLY APPRECIATE permission to run the hose from the Old Cabin. Thank you thank you thank you.

I should add that until I gained a sister-in-law, the only running water we had at the moomincabin was cold water in the kitchen sink. If I wanted to take a shower in those days (and I DID!), I either had to borrow one or bathe in Gitchee Gumee. Gitchee Gumee is waaaaay too cold at this time of year so I was not up for that this weekend.

A final story is that my old coot, who was a child at the Old Cabin and didn’t have running water at all for I dunno how many years, would often say something like: “Running water? You grab a bucket, run down to the lake, fill it up, and run back up.”

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 25th, 2023 at 6:22 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.