Independence

• Turning on the water, only to find that you have none $ 0.00
• Talking with dad on the phone to assess the situation (while leaning over inside the pump house where a very large black widow spider lives) $.05 per minute
• Drive to the 2nd ice machine because the 1st one was out of ice $2.78 per gallon
• 7 bags of ice (112 lbs) $8.75
• Seeing the fireworks from a distance while driving back home to go heat ice on the stove for a bath...PRICELESS
  

Yes my friends...this is how our 4th of July evening was spent. I took my bath then Julie washed some dishes...the water slowly stopped coming out of the facet. Checked all of the hoses outside...water was not leaking from anywhere...called mom (who has had lots of experience with well and pump issues). She told us to check the pressure on the pump gauge and if it was at zero then we were basically screwed..guess what the number was...bet ya can't guess... YEP! ZERO! No water pressure whatsoever. So, when dad got home he walked us through a gazillion things to check and do (he has lots of experience repairing their well and pump. (They even dug their own well--with big machines though!) When none of that worked, he resolved that he will be coming to check it out. Well, I had already gotten my bath and Julie had not. We didn't want to bother any of our friends on July 4th...and she HAD to go to work today because of having some projects to finish up. Also I needed water for myself and the water guzzling dogs for today (since I have not had a working car all summer) we figured we better go get some ice. We went to one ice machine in town that was out of order and had to drive to the other one that is located at the edge of the county. I had my fingers and toes crossed that it was not empty! Back home with 7 bags of ice...we filled pots and pans on the stove with a total of 3 bags for Julie's bath. I'm not sure how many trips we made down the hallway with all of those pots of water (all I could picture was be tripping and pouring boiling water all over myself) and the tub still barely had any water in it. Needless to say, we exercised our independence last night by proving that all we needed on the 4th of July was a working vehicle, an ice machine that wasn't empty, and a kick butt friendship that has some crazy stories behind it!