A Sample of Poverty in my current stomping grounds
© SGHolland 2024, Seattle Washington
It is so comfortable here today.
I’ve grown accustomed to its sufficiency here. More special household
tools and machines than I have been used to all my life.
A couple of weeks ago the emergency blasted our ears all over the seven-story building. We knew, from fire drills, that we must flee our apartments and grab our ID and pets and go down to street level.
And there we were in the vestibule in various stages of dress/undress. We oldsters needed to walk down the stairs even if we had just had knee surgery because the elevators were stopped.
We went outside in the rain. We used our cell phones and called my son and asked to be brought to his house (about ten minutes away) because of the noise and the alarm. Besides, our cat couldn’t wear earmuffs like us, and her ears were many times as sensitive as ours. We brought her in her travel case into my son’s house complete with watchdog greetings! Their dog made our caged cat go nuts.
That was a bit more than a week ago. It turned out that the emergency was a water leak that allowed one whole wing of this building to be flooded.
Once the leak was mended, we were allowed to come back if we were in a not-flooded apartment.
Well this past week we were again treated to the fire-alarm deafening warnings, and we did go down the emergency stairs again with the cat.
We were ushered outside into the traditional Seattle dampness where we sat on a wet stone wall while the emergency went on…and on….and on for hours. It was the same sort of flood, but this time it was on all parts of the building! We were lucky to be sort of in the midsection so the extended pipes did not make our apartment wet, but there was plenty of water…lots more than the week before.
WELL…we were advised that the water would be cut off entirely for as long as it would take to bring new pipes and plumbing in from somewhere a distance away. We were advised that the water would be turned off until further notice.
This was not good. I asked my son to bring over some bottled water to drink and to cook with.
Next day… same thing. Friends brought gallons over and expressed concern. People were hauling bottled water to their rooms in various trolleys and various wagons.
We could make coffee and take our pills. We could thaw out things to heat up and eat. Surely we would be up and running soon! NOT.
Unkempt folks were able to use one of the elevators to get to the front door, and I met a whole bunch of people I had no idea existed. (It’s a big building.).
No water.
Think of it as a city block of unseasoned campers! We always could see “street people” out there on the sidewalks, and they sometimes actually slept there and trudged around being chased off street corners. Such a horrible way to have to live.
People in the nice apartment building found themselves standing in lines waiting for the management to bring teeny plastic water bottles out and waiting for the garden hoses of the next door apartment to be available to get flushing water for toilets. It is not a happy situation to live without a functioning toilet for three plus days in a row. (I wonder what the street people do? I think I sort of know. )
This morning I discovered that the toilet had water in it! Finally! Whatever they had to do, it took them a long time. I was told the whole system was old, and needed to be re-piped entirely. I was told that we would have to wait after the repairs to use the water because certain joints were having to
“cure” before being used for water.
I am very relieved to say that I have now had a bath, and I no longer have gallon jugs in my bathroom. I have run my dishwasher twice to replenish the dishes and glasses and flatware this morning. I am feeling so free, somehow! As if I am in a palace, actually!
Grateful!
As the street people are when the food bank opens and they can choose fresh food to hide in their strange carts and wagons.
A little bag of tangerines, maybe, and some bottled water. A block of cheese and a loaf of bread.
What do they do to make it last until next food bank opens?
This is the wild outdoors just next to my dwelling these days of aging. I watch and then I go home to a safe place where I am grateful for a bath and a cup of tea whenever. I want.
I am extremely grateful and wish for a better life for those outside my building’s locked doors.
