Air Dam

H forgot to shut off the water in his office last night. The toilet over there runs on. It's just a trickle, but it's enough to drain the storage tank if it goes all night – or all day if it's cloudy. The pump is solar powered (a vestige of our early, off-the-grid years here) and runs, on sunny days, into a 500 gallon tank uphill from the house. So this happens from time to time. Sometimes it's that stupid old toilet. Once in a while, someone forgets to shut off the water to a critter tub. Most often, it's just because it was cloudy for one day too many. Usually, we notice before it gets too bad. But when the pressure pump at the house cycles for more than a minute and then, after another minute, gets a note of panic in its voice, you know. Air dam. The whole system is dry. It will take a full tank at the top of the hill to force the air out at the bottom.

And now I've discovered another dam in a not-entirely-unexpected place. I've been neglecting my online friendships for months – personal shit has sucked away what limited energy I had for social interaction. I let whatever reserves of good will I had there trickle away for a few too many cloudy days – tried to reopen a tap just now and found myself blocked. Ouch. Not that I don't deserve it, but all the same. Ouch.