AUSTIN, Texas, September 1, 2005 — So I'm dreaming of flooding. Who wouldn't? I get up to go to the john and I notice that the phone says line 2 is in use. It seems dead. It comes back but I hear noise outside.

Sure enough a truck with a backhoe and a dump truck are outside. I go outside but no one comes out to talk to me.

Then they leave! Later they come back. We go over the same ground. The guy decides he will cut the water service off. Easier said than done. Seems the water initially overflows the valve or he has the wrong one or something. Finally, it

gets shut off. It's amazing. The puddle near the house stops bubbling and starts drying up.

So the guy digs with the backhoe. Of course, he doesn't find the break. He does bust a sprinkler line. Of course.

He turns the service back on and the hole fills with water. Pretty quickly in my book.

The crew calls for leak detection to come back. The backhoe guy dumps the water out of the hole into the gutter.

Time drags on. The crew changes. The leak detection guy comes. A supervisor comes by and suggests it is our sprinkler system! The detector guy listens, detects, doesn't find. He goes up the block, hearing this and that.

Mark my words...it's under the driveway but first they are going to dig up all of the yard because they 'hate to destroy the driveway.'

A friend drops by with fast food for her lunch and we talk. About co-workers who are ill and work (ugh) and stuff. It's after one. We still don't know how the continuing case of the water detective show is going to play out. Ah, well. And guess what today is? Today is the first day of no smoking in bars in Austin. And I haven't worked out. In between times I flip through T&T TV. As I predicted Muller, the Roddick-killer, is ousted in straight sets. As anyone could have predicted, the suffering from Katrina goes on while politicians babble.

Finally they dig and detect some more. And eat hamburgers and drink Big Gulps. The water fills the hole pretty quickly and then they start a pump to pull it out.

And they wait for a dump truck so they "won't make such a big mess."

Then they find it:

They get the water shut off and start destroying the driveway so they can put in a long replacement pipe and then this "won't ever happen again." Let's see and they've also promised to replace the dirt, the grass, fix the sprinkler system and the driveway. We watch them, confident that the gas line won't survive. They question where the sewer is at one point. Good time to worry that, yes? FFP has to go to a meeting. He showered at the club. I've been up since five and haven't showered and I'm starting to feel like one of those refuges (oh, they don't want to be called that) on TV but they have it so much worse. I've been escaping to the AC, eating, drinking potable water and having coffee (we stockpiled water). Sigh.

I watch T&T until the Tennis goes off. The unremitting tragedy you can't do anything about is starting to wear on me. FFP heard of jet fuel shortages. Our plans for the fall may be changed as well. But so it goes.

FFP comes back from his meeting. They have fixed the pipe, avoiding the gas line (although it looks a little precarious, doesn't it?) and the sewer.

I go to Central market and get some vegies and some dips for my Dad's church thing tomorrow and some chilled soup and a few groceries for us.

As night falls I make deviled eggs and listen to the backhoe and dump truck fill in a temporary driveway and dirt. Then they sit around for a while (collecting some OT? waiting to see if something erupts? waiting for another call?) and finally leave. We have been promised a concrete curb cut repair, the sprinkler system fixed and sod. Stranger things have happened, I guess. At least the leak is stopped, I hope.

Tennis and tragedy on TV, my minor infrastructure failure, hearing about old acquaintances from work with health problems. It all makes me feel mighty strange. Surreal is a good word. I'm safe and well-fed and, although I haven't had a shower today, in pretty good shape. I tell FFP that I'm taking credit for the gas line not getting broken.

I drank too much coffee today and I wonder if I'll be able to sleep. I made deviled eggs for Dad's deal and figure I will cut up a few vegies in the morning. I read a while and tried to relax. The 'extra' deviled eggs that I consumed began to rebound on me. I tried to go to sleep but goet up and had a couple of Aloe Vera gel caps and they did the trick. Tomorrow will be a better day. Or different anyway.