Fred & Wilma, 1st Day Continued

3.

Wilma and I managed to get the car out of the gigantic mess the parking was in and headed home. Finally got there, and we sat down for a minute to take stock of ourselves. We talked about how much food we had and how long it would last, we also talked about how much water we had. That is going to be an issue sooner than food is. I think.

 The San Joaquin River is just south of us a couple of miles. To access it will require going thru some farmers property, and I really don't want to have to do that. I know there is an access road thru some farmers yard southeast of us that requires a fee to go thru per car. If we need to haul water that may be an option.

There is also a canal directly south of our development here, just a few hundred yards. But that canal is usually empty. Something to think about. And gasoline for my vehicle will be in short supply soon sounds like.

 Wilma and I decided to dig out the WaterBob we had purchased for the tub. We did so and filled it. It has a small hand operated pump on it for getting the water out. Then we filled every pot and pan we had with water, and by that time the water pressure was nonexistent. Looks like everyone must have had the same idea.

 Wilma said I have to  go potty. I said OH SHIT! She said "Exactly!"

Oh Man! For right now, this is priority one. We have a toilet tank full of water at the moment, but what do we do later? We can't waste the water down the drain like that. And she has been having problems. So what do I do? I know the answer, but she isn't gonna like it. And for the moment we have enough toilet paper, but thats gonna run out really soon. Then what do we do?

 But do I prioritize digging out the lid of the septic tank now, and rigging a makeshift poo box, or do I use another gallon of water and work on other things first? I have about 600 gallons of water in barrels in my backyard, another 100 in the tub, and 5 or so more in pots. Plus I have about 30 cases of bottled water. So for now, digging the lid of the septic for the poo box will wait.

 About that time we hear a knock at the front door. Not thinking anything of it, I open the door and there stands my neighbor to the west of me.

"Howdy", I say. "Hi" he says. Then he asks me  if I have any water I can spare. Now what do I do? I tell him we can give him a few bottles of water, but thats all we can do because we don't have enough for us. Oh crap, this is happening already?

 So I get him 10 bottles of water. I ask if they filled all their pots and pans and he says yes. I remind him the water heater will have about 30 gallons in it. I suggest that they limit their water usage to 1/2 gallon per person per day, because water won't be coming back soon. Then I ask him about the toilet and he hadn't thought about that. I told him about digging up the lid of the septic tank and rigging a makeshift poo box.  He marveled at that idea and said he didn't know how his young wife would handle that. I suggested he talk about that immediately as the toilet would use water they didn't have.

 Then he said thank you and went home.

 After he left, I started thinking about priorities. If the grid is down, and we don't know when it will come up, what should we do? We have food for a couple months, but it's february and summer won't be that far away. When the food runs out then what? I have a lot of seeds, so do I start a garden now? Or is all this for naught, the grid and everything else will come back tomorrow? Who the hell knows?

 What do we do for lights? What about cooking? For lights we have the 2 small battery solar systems so we can run extension cords for lights, run the fridges and freezer also. Just have to ensure any opening of those is done during daylight hours so we have plenty of solar to run them. Might need to remove the light bulb in those also. Just a thought.

 Our cooktop is electric, our ovens are electric. Cooking can be done outside on the barbecue grill for now. I have a couple of coleman campstoves we can pull out. But for a long haul we will run out of gasoline and propane fuel for the stoves. I have a bucket with a grill on it as a makeshit hibachi grill, we can use that with wood. And I know how to make a rocket stove using bricks. That can be fired with wood also.

 Well, it is almost dark. I am not sure what we will do. My dad used to say, when you don't know what to do it might be best to not do anything. I am not sure that holds out in this situation. But for now, for tonight, that is what I am going to do. We are going to make it thru the night, and maybe tomorrow we might get some good news.

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