Not a Drop to Drink

So, it's been an odd couple of weeks... I had no water. One day-with hair full of conditioner-it just simply stopped running. After much profanity and beating up of my well pump I resigned myself to my fate. It had finally happened: the well had run dry. I would have to get "city water" at an enormous financial and emotional cost. I love my well water. It is delicious, off the grid, and completely free. The well below my house is what the old folks call "artesian" which I'm not sure is accurate, but I'm also sure I don't care what it is called so long as there is clean, icy water to drink. It's sourced from an underground spring and has been supplying my home with water for 60+ years. So, panic, waterless panic sets in. I disencamp from my house. Stay with my parents for a week or so. Go home every couple days to see if it has refilled. Nothing. Not a drop. So, I call in a plumber. The same plumber that installed the well pump. He spends 15 mintues-no exaggeration-15 minutes in my garage fiddling with the pump. And suddenly, miraculously, I have water. Gushing rivers of water. When I ask what the issue was he mumbles some vague, gruff thing about a switch not connecting, but it's clean now so... I spent a week living out of suitcase, half frantic about having to find a new water source, and it turns out that it was just a minor mechanical issue. #1 Lesson Learned: Do not always assume the worst case scenario. #2 Lesson Learned: It's not going to kill you to learn at least the basics of how stuff works-especially if a slow death from dehydration is the consequence of not learning it.