No Water...Again!

Yesterday afternoon I went to the laundromat up the road.  Noticed that there were a lot of electric crews installing new telephone poles, did not give it a second thought.  It was a pretty hot day so came home and showered before eating my supper.  It was a good thing because when I got ready to wash the dishes...there was no water!

I knew I paid the water bill but who do I call to inquire if it is only our house or area wide?  The neighbors have all ditched their landlines and I have no idea what their cell phone numbers are.  The water department was already closed so went online to the City of Del Rio webpage.  There I found out the contractors putting in the telephone poles broke a water main.  They refer you to their Facebook or Twitter account for further information.  Darn, I don't do Facebook or Twitter or for that matter use social sites!

The day before I had given Walter 9 gallons of water and since I was in a hurry I did not fill them back up,  the good thing was I still had 8 gallons left.  Heard the toilet tank filling up around 2:14 a.m. but it was filling up with a lot of force...I was afraid it might bust the tank!

This morning I went to water Walter since I knew the owner's son was not going to fill his water barrel before going to school.  As you can tell from the angle the sun hits the barrel...it was empty and had been for two days. Darn kid!!!

By this afternoon the water looked clear so I found some more milk jugs and managed to fill 20 gallons worth.  Good thing I did, because around 7:00 p.m. the water went off again!

On a different note... I spoke to the mechanic earlier this afternoon and he told me to send him Dad's car.  Called Triple A at 1:15 p.m. and they did not show up until 3:55 p.m.  Heck I get faster service in Houston than I do here. On the positive side, it is on its way to be fixed.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Start Saving your Milk Jugs

With less than two months to the Chili Cook-off I want to offer a bit of advice to newcomers…start saving your milk jugs now!

You might be asking yourself…why would we want to do that?  Elementary my future chili-heads, you are heading to the desert where water is scarce and they do not exaggerate when they call it “liquid gold”.

You are probably saying…I am a seasoned camper, I know to take water.  Yes, a lot of people take five gallon jugs, I take a six gallon container some even take 32 gallon barrels but you need to empty your containers on to something and gallon milk jugs are manageable.

If you leave them outside your tent or camper they will be nice and hot, weather permitting, by lunch time and you can take a nice shower or wash your dishes and greasy pots without having to use your propane.

Another benefit is that once the cook-off is history and you no longer need or want the extra weight of the water you brought down, you can gift your water to the locals who very much appreciate it.

You don’t know how many times I have seen people just empty their fresh water tanks onto the ground because even though there were people willing to take the water they had no containers on hand to pour it into.

So start saving them and bring them with you.  If you do not have room in your vehicle to do so, just bring the plastic tops…you have no idea how many tops get lost out there.  If you can also bring a funnel, less water will be lost due to spillage.

If you are thinking about going but do not have anyone to go with, go by yourself!  People are friendly and we love to show virgins a good time.  Hope to see you there.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.