Water Woes

When we lived in the city, we paid for our water. And when I say, we paid for it, I mean we REALLY paid for it. We lived in a suburb of Detroit, actually pretty close to the border of the city (about a mile or so away) and because Detroit is poor, they upped the water usage charge to the suburbs to pay for their own water use. Twisted? Yeah. But true.

So we would pay $300 every three months for water, for the same amount of usage (actually--less!) as, for example, my mother-in-law in a different county, for which she would pay $100. It was maddening, but since it the rate was dictated by the city, there wasn't much we could do about it.

Out here, we don't have to pay for our water, because it comes from a well. So the water we bathe in, wash clothes in, wash our dishes in, is free. What a concept! Now, granted, we don't have any water pressure, but that's not a problem in general with living in the country, it's a specific problem with our well, which will (knock on wood) ultimately be fixed.

However, drinking well water is not my idea of fun. I'll cook with it (like, boil pasta in it) and bathe in it--but drink it? *shudder* I've never liked the mineral taste of well water. So instead, we buy our water from the store. Which isn't as bad as it sounds, because our local Meijers has a Culligan water system, which provides filtered water in gallon jugs for $0.59. If you bring your own jug, you only have to pay $0.29 a gallon. Of course, you have to fill your own, which is part of why it's cheaper than just grabbing a jug of water off the shelf, but it doesn't take that long, really, to fill a bunch of them. And fifty gallons of water is only a little less that $15.00. Wish I could have gotten those prices when we lived in the city!

However, at our Meijers (which just opened up, by the way, less than a month ago) the Culligan water system has been out of order for a few weeks. Very annoying. Michael went there with all the jugs in the back of the minivan last time, but it was still out of order. So, instead of putting the jugs back into the van and going all the way there, I decided to call Meijers to make sure the water system was working again.

I thought, perhaps, (since we're in the country and all) I'd actually get a real person on the other end of the phone, but alas, it was a recording. And not just any recording, but one of those "smart" recordings, the kind that attempt to identify what you say in order to transfer you to the correct department. I hate those.

This time, right when the recording asked, "How can I help you?"-- I sneezed. I've had a cold, and all of a sudden, ACHOO! The recording replied: "I'm sorry, I didn't get that..." Which just cracked me up. I started laughing, and the recording replied, "I'm sorry, in order not to waste any more of your time, I'll transfer you..."

Perfect! I got to bypass fighting with the recording without even trying. Mental note to self: whenever recordings come on, just sneeze to get to the head of the line! :)

The good news is, the woman I did get tranferred to said the Culligan water machine is working again. Yay! Time to go get me some cheap water!