Since December 21, I have been reporting on the lack of hydro in our condo building. It’s an ongoing tale …
When we got our electricity back on December 31, many breathed a sigh of relief and expressed that daily life would now be much easier. After all, now that we had electricity, we could plug in heaters.
Let me assure you, it’s not as simple as you might think. Yes, we have a heater, but only one. That heater is on full-time in Dieter’s bedroom, where we spend most of our time.
While the room is heated, it is by no means warm. We still wear several layers of clothing and sit with a blanket over our legs and feet.
The rest of the condo is ice cold. Cooking, doing dishes or even making coffee is accompanied by violent shivering.
There are no leisurely bathroom visits. Washing and other visits are handled at the speed of lightning.
When it’s time to go to bed, I reluctantly leave Dieter’s relatively warm room, to go to my bedroom where everything is ice cold: the air, the floorboards, the bed sheets and pillowcase.
My bed is sort of warm. I once read in a book that one of the characters placed a blanket in her bed on top of the mattress. I tried it and it makes all the difference.
Having to do without heat is not the only problem though, lack of hot water also poses a problem. Simple hand washing is grueling, brushing our teeth and washing our face in the morning is torture, and of course a shower or bath are out of the question.
We found a way around that problem by heating up pots of water. That way we can at least wash in relative comfort and do the dishes. But even though it’s a solution to a problem, I miss showering, I miss feeling clean.
The reason for the discomfort was a leaking pipe that dripped water on the circuit board. After the hydro people spent a lot of time drying the circuit board, we thought that soon all our problems would be solved. There was even the promise that within 24 hours we might have heat and hot water.
When the pipe no longer dripped, everyone thought a solution was found, but that was not the case, the pipe was simple frozen solid.
Industrial heaters were brought in to defrost the frozen pipe, but after this was successfully accomplished a new problem popped up … a massive leak. A leak that didn't just drip water on the electric circuit board, but flooded the whole electrical room.
In other words … our problems are worse than ever and there’s no telling when this disaster will end.
When we got our electricity back on December 31, many breathed a sigh of relief and expressed that daily life would now be much easier. After all, now that we had electricity, we could plug in heaters.
Let me assure you, it’s not as simple as you might think. Yes, we have a heater, but only one. That heater is on full-time in Dieter’s bedroom, where we spend most of our time.
While the room is heated, it is by no means warm. We still wear several layers of clothing and sit with a blanket over our legs and feet.
The rest of the condo is ice cold. Cooking, doing dishes or even making coffee is accompanied by violent shivering.
There are no leisurely bathroom visits. Washing and other visits are handled at the speed of lightning.
When it’s time to go to bed, I reluctantly leave Dieter’s relatively warm room, to go to my bedroom where everything is ice cold: the air, the floorboards, the bed sheets and pillowcase.
My bed is sort of warm. I once read in a book that one of the characters placed a blanket in her bed on top of the mattress. I tried it and it makes all the difference.
Having to do without heat is not the only problem though, lack of hot water also poses a problem. Simple hand washing is grueling, brushing our teeth and washing our face in the morning is torture, and of course a shower or bath are out of the question.
We found a way around that problem by heating up pots of water. That way we can at least wash in relative comfort and do the dishes. But even though it’s a solution to a problem, I miss showering, I miss feeling clean.
The reason for the discomfort was a leaking pipe that dripped water on the circuit board. After the hydro people spent a lot of time drying the circuit board, we thought that soon all our problems would be solved. There was even the promise that within 24 hours we might have heat and hot water.
When the pipe no longer dripped, everyone thought a solution was found, but that was not the case, the pipe was simple frozen solid.
Industrial heaters were brought in to defrost the frozen pipe, but after this was successfully accomplished a new problem popped up … a massive leak. A leak that didn't just drip water on the electric circuit board, but flooded the whole electrical room.
In other words … our problems are worse than ever and there’s no telling when this disaster will end.
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