Interrupted

At the risk of implying prescience, displayed in my last posting, "Heat" on July 6th, I share that I was a heat refugee for 36 hours after posting that blog entry. Yes, I had my own small energy Armageddon here outside my building, where an electric transformer on a pole near my window exploded on Tuesday evening. Yes, exploded, with Hollywood-style pyrotechnics, also suited to July 4th fireworks.

The temperature here in Boston had reached a record-breaking 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The transformer exploded, and the wires attached to it caught fire. No power for many units here in this densely populated neighborhood. No air conditioning. No fans. No refrigerators. No lights.

My upper floor apartment in an antique building heated up instantly when the air conditioner went out. It was unbearable within an hour. Luckily, I had a nearby refuge. The next two days were enjoyable where I was staying. The up side of the disaster is a better and more regular electric current in my building. Apparently, that old transformer was surging anyway. I had noticed irregular current my PC's voltage meter after moving here.

The down side, of course, was dealing with a major utility company. I reported the outage to an electronic voice, who haltingly promised to call me with updates which never came. There was no on line method for reporting the outage or following the progress of repair. They do have on line billing, of course.

I did find that I am a blogger of ritual. Without my shower, yoga and green tea in my own digs, I did not routinely post here for the two days I was away from my apartment. I'll have to work on that. Nothing will make a good thing go stale like ritual. Just ask any lapsed Catholic.

Water

The urban water supply of Metropolitan Boston has failed, as of May 1st. Contractors associated with the infamous Big Dig tunnel project, a standard of corruption and lethally substandard construction, are rumored to be responsible for the supply pipe which failed after just 7 years, thus cutting off drinkable water for 2 million people. The system has, as yet, no back-up supply line. Brilliant, eh? Yes, we are boiling water in Boston, and it isn't for lobsters or clams. It's for giadia and cryptosporidia.

How did we get here from the proud days of the far-sighted Quabbin Reservoir project and elegantly designed granite pumping stations (as illustrated) on pristine back-up reservoirs, scattered around the city? How is it that we have some of the most plentiful watersheds in the world, yet pay nearly twice as much for water as people in Phoenix, AZ!

I am hoping time will tell all. However, the short attention span of the media and the voting public leaves me doubtful that anything will come of it. In the meantime, I suggest you take a leaf from the book of my independent 90-year-old mother, whom I called to make sure she was aware of the need to boil water for drinking. She said, "Doesn't really effect me at all. I've been boiling my water for decades." And, her practice is not naive. She was once the administrative assistant for her hometown's civil engineer, who, of course, was involved with the urban water supply.