Conserving Water

As I have mentioned, this area is in a drought condition. Watering restrictions exist. Heavy fines are imposed on those that water outside other than their three designated days each week.

The Cobb County Water Authority has sent suspected water abusers letters. They can tell by the water meter readings whether they are probably using more water than they should or not.

We got a letter a couple of months ago.

It told us how much water we used in the past three months. Then it told us how much water, on the average, was consumed by our neighbors. It did not name names. But it did say, over a two month period we used about 40,000 gallons of water more than our average neighbor used during the same time period.

Huh?

There are only two of us that live at this address, well, three now, if you count the dog.. Joe was always washing his new truck or having a water hose fight with his mother or mate. Other neighbors water their lawns, we didn’t. Our grass was the brownest in the neighborhood.

I am proud of brown grass as a symbol of doing my civic duty.

We wondered what we could do to conserve water. Our commodes are not the newest type. The tank in the back hold more water. That could explain why we consumed more water than our neighbor.

We called our handyman, Mr. Mathews to come out and put new innards in the commodes so that it can be used to adjust to use less water. Which he did.

Mr. Mathews came in and went straight to work, talking very little.

When he finished we sat down at the table and he told me how much and I wrote him a check. He looked at the pie-safe we have and it reminded him of his antique pie-safe. He told me the life story of his pie-safe, of the dentist who owned it before him, and the man who owned it before him…. Which included in the story was the only other kind of pie-safe like it, as far as he knew, was in the log cabin museum that Abe Lincoln was born in, in Kentucky.

Everything he told me he told me on a previous handy-man job visit. I hated to hurt his feeling or embarrass him by telling him I already heard the story, and it hadn’t changed a bit since the last time he told me.

He also told me he acquired a Governor Winthrop desk and the story behind that – he told me that story twice also.

He suggested that we should shut off all water values and go up in the front of the yard where the water meter is and see if any dials are moving. They shouldn’t be.

He and I both forgot after his stories of acquiring antique furniture. He left.

I decided I would do it myself. I told my neighbor Kathleen what I was going to do and she said I was picking a good day, because the meter man came by and read the meter no long ago.

I went up, pried opened the cover of the water meter to read. I couldn’t read it. There is a thick moisture of water and mildew. It looked like it had been that way a long time. Not only could I not read it but there is no way the meter man could have read it.

The rascal has been guesstimating my meter reading each month. And he is guessing much more than we are using and the county is warning us that we are using too much water.

The water meter readers, by the way, are not county employees, it is done by a contracted out company.

As it looks now, I plan to calmly call the water department Monday and pitch a screaming shit fit.