LIVING & SANDYCOVE

                                                                 

Oh my, I say to myself.  Is cable TV out again?  Quick, check the water.  Is that on?  Can we flush?  Sigh, after almost 3 months of living here in God’s country, you’d think I’d be used to all this crap but I’m not and I sure would like it to change, ‘cause I don’t want to get used to it.  There’s no future in getting used to it.  I have noticed a suspicious correlation between the cable TV being out and the water going off.  I’m not quite sure what that all means, but I’m sure it means something.  Does anyone out there know?

Let’s review – shortly after I moved here in early June, there was a thunderstorm, lots of marble-sized hail.  Apparently, the pumps, which supply the water for SCA, took a lightning hit.  Don’t we have lightning rods?  Maybe not.  Given the size of SCA and the number of residents, approximately 1,200 homes, sheltering a minimum of 1,842 people, assorted pets, grand children and a number of visitors, wouldn’t you think that SCA would have a fast and efficient back-up system?  Uh-huh.

Not that I would drink the tap water (it smells like a swimming pool and not one of SCA’s) and I have to wonder, if there is so much chlorine in our water supply that I can smell it as it comes out the tap, what in the heck will it do to our insides if we drink it?  But, at least I can do the dishes and flush the commode.  After a couple of hours, the cable flickers back to life and I run to the kitchen.  Sure enough, the water starts spurting and spluttering.  How odd, I think, but I’m happy that the amenities are back.

The next (bright and sunny) day, I was talking to Rich (The Mayor of Marlin Court) and asked him if he had experienced the same things as I had the night before and not surprisingly, he had.  He also had a wealth of advice on what to do (and not) so that all that wonderful iron in our water doesn’t get sucked into the hot water tank, or through the pipes.  Hmm, too late, as I think of the shower I'd had after the water came back on.  It had been an interesting shade of root beer.  Oh, well, at least I know what to do the next time. 

Then I have to wonder why this advice isn’t included, in what I refer to as my ‘Welcome’ package from SCA.  You would think that somewhere in the multitude of papers I received when I bought my house, including a lease 12 pages long, a précis of the rules and regs which I was relieved to see confined to only one (full) page, plus bunches of other papers, that they could include one page which explains the eccentricities of living here and what to do if/when…

But they don’t and I have to ask, “Why not?” 

Oh, and then there’s the wonderful local Internet company, Subsequentcom, which is aging me faster than the water problem.  I’ve been paying for HI-SPEED internet for the past three months and the only thing about it that I consider HI-SPEED, is how fast it will slow to less-than-snail pace, enabling me to vacuum, have a bathroom break, take the dog for a walk around Marlin Court and make a sandwich, all while I wait for ONE damn page to finish loading.  Oh, and try to sign in to something like e-bay or kijiji?  No freakin’ way.  That ain’t gonna happen any time soon. 

The only place I can check ahead for cable TV listings is a web site on THE INTERNET.  So how does Subsequentcom think I can access this, when A – my internet is sporadic at best and 2, takes so long to load, that when I’m lucky enough to get the site fully downloaded, that the next day is already yesterday? 

And the icing on the cake?  Let’s talk about telephone issues.  In the interest of saving money and not using Bell again in this lifetime if I can help it (looooooong story), I decided to give Magic Jack Plus a try.  Magic Jack Plus is VOIP.  For those not in the know, VOIP translates to Voice Over Internet Protocol.  Get it?  INTERNET protocol!  Magic Jack Plus is only as good as your INTERNET SERVICE.   Even Skype is not an option ‘cause it’s VOICE OVER INTERNET.  So when you use Magic Jack Plus and your internet isn’t working ‘cause there’s too much humidity in the gazillion leaves on the millions of trees, what are you supposed to do?  My cell phone time is invoiced by the nano-second.  I should send Subsequentcom my bill.

I have no idea where I’m supposed to be or when, ‘cause I keep everything on my Yahoo calendar which I can’t access.  If you’re one of the people I was supposed to get together with yesterday, today or tomorrow, I’m sorry that I wasn’t there.

                                                        

I’ve spoken to the owner, Chip, on a number of occasions, and the tech, Chuck, and while they’ve tried a thing or two to rectify the problems, unfortunately the fix doesn’t last long.  I had a message from Chuck this afternoon that the problem should be fixed for good early next week.  I hope I live that long.  But, on the plus side, not having internet (and subsequently phone), it gives me lots of time to write this blog.

The days march on and the cable goes out again.  I run to check the water.  Yep, no water. Big sigh.  This is getting monotonous.  No rhyme or reason.  No thunderstorm or lightning.   A couple of hours later, bang, both come back on.  Weird.  The next day, I was talking to the one of SCA’s other residents and the theory at the time was that a drunk driver had wiped out a pole on the 25^th.  Cable we can live without.  Again, I ask you, where was the back-up system for SCA’s water? 

A few days after that, instant replay.  This time, according to a SCA source, Innisfil Hydro had to turn off the juice in order to fix the damage caused by a lightning strike (not a drunk driver after all – hmmm, funny how localized it must have been, since we’d not had any thunder or lightning here in The Park).  Surely SCA would have been notified by Innisfil Hydro that this was going to happen?  Yes, No?  Even if no, what happened to the back-up system for our water?  It didn’t kick in at all.

 

THEN, a ‘tornado’.  Although I’m convinced our tornado was actually a micro-burst.  It was so intense and over so fast, coming out of the west, directly behind The Mayor’s house - 40 year old trees were bending in half.  I was surprised that they didn’t come all the way down.  I couldn’t even stand out on my porch and watch it.  The rain was coming in on the horizontal and hard.  I ran in the house and watched from the safety of my front door.  Mother Nature at her awesome best.  Something must have pissed her off, royally.

About 20 minutes later, the fat lady was singing and everything was eerily quiet.  Of course, the cable, water and this time, the hydro, were all out, along with most of my neighbours.  It was kinda fun in a way.  No a/c, TV or pee pee, so people were coming out.  One of my neighbours gave me and a couple of the other ladies a tour of her place and it was interesting to see how someone else had designed their compact space.  There was a sense of camaraderie in the air, neighbours standing together is small clumps, chatting.  I met neighbours I hadn’t even seen before.

Someone suggested that we take a tour of The Park, so we all piled into Ellen’s van and took a slow drive around.  So much damage.  Cars buried under huge old trees, awnings crushed, windows broken, gazebos missing their coats, the chimney at The Spoke bent like a pretzel.  It was sobering to see the result of Mother Nature’s fury and we all thanked our lucky stars that Marlin Court had been spared, this time.

This saga should end here but I just have to mention that a week or so after all the excitement, the water had to be turned off for over 5 hours to effect repairs on the main.  Sigh.  Country living.  What is it that Eva Gabor used to sing on Green Acres?  “I get allergic smelling hay…”

                                                                                                                      

 P.S.  I heard the coyotes howling last night.  The hair is still standing up on the back of my neck.