Tolerance

 

A human being's ability to tolerate inconveniences depends on so many things.

Some people do not deal well with the smallest things, a hang nail can turn them into raging maniacs. Others generally build towards some invisible and variable point known only to them.

And then there are those people who seem to be able to rock and roll with whatever punches come at them. My youngest son is like that. It is terrifying to think that his kayak could be caught upside down in a raging stream and he would be calmly probing his brain for his next action.

Today a block of people in our apartment building were told we would have no water until further notice. That meant no drinking water, no showers, no flushing toilets with no advance warning!

The optimistic goal of water being turned on by noon was tolerable for most of us. Three thirty didn't seem totally unreasonable since it was a water main they were fixing. But my phone call at three forty suggested it might be five, five thirty, or even six. 

I asked how we would know when the water was back on and discovered they had no plans for how to let us know. It simply hadn't occurred to them! 

That is when almost everyone's tolerance wore a bit thin. Not using the bathroom is no big deal if it isn't your bathroom and they did make other bathrooms available. One on the top floor. One on the main floor. 

I found myself on the way to the modern version of an outhouse. Not really an outhouse of course. It was a fully functioning, fully flushing toilet down the hall and ten floors away on an elevator. When you are an older woman you will understand how inconvenient that is.

Hours more holding-it-in awaited us all, but soon after I hung up the phone someone knocked on my door. The water was on and bathrooms were once more usable! Seven hours of horror ended! The sun came out, birds twittered cheerfully and little angels sang in choirs on every corner.

Thank goodness I made that call. I shudder to think we might have gone the whole weekend thinking we didn't have a pot to pee in.