Creative Every Day = Septic System Thursday

Yesterday was a day that made Creative Every Day (hereafter to be known as CED) a challenge. Let me begin with a small lesson in rural living, for you city-dwellers: we live in the county, not a city, and our water is supplied by a 4-party well that we share with three of our neighbors (no kidding!). Our waste-water (sinks, showers, laundry, ETC.) is dealt with by our own septic system. We had it designed specifically for our lot when we were getting our building permit, and then it was installed, per design. Septic systems are quite the engineering marvel: my parents have a very special one that is basically a swimming pool made of concrete, filled with sand, that sits under their deck. Ours is much less exciting than that, but it is amazing, in that it uses gravity and evaporation and takes up quite a bit of land in our woods, but is invisible and has no noticeable effect on our property.

Anyway, two days ago, as I was taking a shower, I became aware of a very pesky sound, as if our doorbell or some one's timer had gotten stuck ON. After getting dressed, I went outside to investigate, & followed the annoying alarm-sound to a small grey box on the side of our house (which I have managed to ignore for the past 9 years). I couldn't ignore it anymore, because an orange light on top of it was flashing, and the alarm-noise was coming from it. I pushed a button that said, "Silence" (oh, if I only had one of those with me at all times!) and found blessed relief from the loud ringing. You have probably guessed by now (because you are clever) that the alarm was coming from our septic system. Did you know that septic systems have alarms? I didn't --but I do now.

To make a long story short, I made some calls, and yesterday, the pumper truck came and charged us $700+ to take away the contents of our septic tanks (don't think about this too much), and their colleagues arrived later to tell us that our new (yes, we must buy a NEW) pump will cost us about $900. Friends, you do not want to argue about getting a new septic pump. You do not want troubles in this area of your life. FYI, a pump can only be expected to last about 9 years, and our house is 8 years and 10 months old.

So CED involved a lot of waiting, phone calls back and forth, the arrival of trucks and specialists (and the preparation of a turkey breast, for dinner, in the midst of this activity). I didn't take any photos; the whole subject is best treated without visual imagery.

MB & I spoke at length yesterday about how the present times are challenging us mentally, spiritually, economically, emotionally and physically. And we agreed that creative living - CED -can mean something as simple as responding creatively to the demands of your life. Maybe it's cooking more economically. Maybe it's giving your time/talent/things to charity, instead of giving money that you cannot spend. Maybe it's finding a new way to use something you already own, instead of buying a new one. Maybe it's staying home together, instead of going out. Maybe it's walking instead of driving. Whatever it might mean is as individual and varied in potential as people are varied. I've decided to treat CED to mean living creatively, listening creatively, responding creatively, acting creatively. It seems like a good thing to be reflecting about, given the upcoming inauguration of a new president.