We had episodes like this all day. Then I heard simultaneous zapping noises from the line outside. A friend called the electric company for us and explained it was centelleando (sparking, which she said would get them here quickly, and sure enough within thirty minutes a brand new UTE Ford pickup appeared. I pointed toward the line and that’s where I heard it. Up ladder, new connector, and chau. All normal again.
No, it’s not Earl Grey tea. It’s our tap water this morning, following a stormy night. The water will clear up with time. But if you were to visit Uruguay believing the claim that all the tap water is drinkable and see this, you might have second thoughts.
On the other hand, I remember well when a friend in Germany sent us some Heilerde. Maybe a little dirt is good for you?
In January, it will be ten years since I last lived in the United States, and one wonderful and immediate change was no more junk mail! Now all our utility bills are delivered electronically, which is great. There’s almost never anything in the outside mailbox.
But, yet to find and explanation: why they emailed yesterday’s bill ten times.
Well, some credit due — at least you don’t have to type “www” to get to their web page on this just-recently-introduced Internet thing.
So far, this is the most insufferably hot day of the summer currently reporting 35° C (95% F) in Montevideo. Clouds are piling up, and it has that “this has to break soon” feeling: i.e., rain.
And the little joys — the sudden sound of water filling a toilet tank after several hours without water. We never lack for drinking water; I tend toward stockpiling (horoscope: Cancer) and my wife knows the value of water having experienced the Cyprus coup and invasion of 1974 somewhat intimately.
Regardless, to suddenly lose water on the hottest day of the year is disconcerting. I was reminded, in the heat with no water, of the drought in neighboring Brazil. Even though rain in January here is unusual — except for last year and this year — I can’t complain …
… as I hear thunder in the distance.
