When I was working for the survey, I was gone to the field for weeks at a time. That plus a steady girl friend meant that I was away more than I was home. Well, time changes all things, and at some point I found myself actually living in the house where I paid rent every month. A broken heart will do that to you.
Anyway, it had been raining constantly, so we were home for the duration. It was then that I really began to notice a few of my room mates bad habits. For one, he like to leave the garage door open. I didn't mind this, except that I kept a lot of my stuff in the garage and from time to time a possum took up residence among the boxes. Now, I don't know if you know much about possums, but they are mean. The first time it happened I tried to prod one out with a broom stick. I don't know what I expected, but when the thing leaped at me with claws and teeth extended. I was the one who ran out of the garage. At that point I had decided he could keep my stereo and favorite chair.
My room mate was younger than me and was in his early twenties. I had just passed the quarter century mark, and was once again going through one of those vain I am dying tomorrow phases. In this case, my hair was beginning to thin a bit on top. Now my room mate was already basically bald, and he took great comfort in the fact that my scalp was following suit. Of course, I made the mistake of asking him about my growing cue baldness. He said yep. Its all falling out. Of course I panicked. I never have been one to dwell on my appearance, but my hair has always been my achilles heel. I loved the fact that I have thick hair. It is part of who I am, and I was losing it. Yes, I panicked a bit. I drove like a mad man to Wally World and started throwing stuff in the cart. Rogaine, new shampoo, etc... All in all I had about fifty dollars worth of stuff in my cart. i finally realized how silly I was being when I was looking specifically at hair vitamins. I ended up putting most of it back and when the stress of my life came down. Mysteriously, my hair came back. My room mate was not happy. It was due primarily to our low water pressure.
The rain stopped, and once again I was off to who knows where. Rain in the midwest is followed by drought. Hot dry drought. I came home after several weeks and my long sloped drive way was wet. In fact, water was running down the street. I caught my room mate on the way out and asked him about it, and he went yep, there's water on the street. He was never much of a conversationist. He did say that it was a spring. A spring flowing out of our driveway. Right...
I didnt really want to have a monstrous water bill, so I called up the land lord who told me that it was a seasonal spring. Right... I called up the city. They said it was a seasonal spring. Now, if nough people tell you the same thing you should believe them right? Well, I didn't. I drove back to wally world and bought a chlorine test kit for fish tanks. There was no chlorine in the water flowing out. Good right?
Then how come I still didnt have much water pressure. I was concerned until our water bill showed up and it was the same as always. I thought it was a done deal, and then the city tore up our yard and driveway. It seems that the tree in our yard had liked the spring and had sent out roots in all directions. Roots that had affected the water main enough to make people complain. They tore up everythiing, and when they fixed it, they repaved our driveway. My spring was now under concrete, and our water pressure came back.
