Thank you for kind thoughts, Katie. I appreciate them as do all of us here.

We're safe, but life is far from normal. We don't have potable water service in our homes. We've had "dirty" water for a couple of weeks now, and that's an improvement: not having to carry buckets into the bathroom to flush is definitely an improvement. But every other activity is fraught. We can't drink it or cook with it; they say we can shower in it and do laundry and wash dishes in the dishwasher if we use the sanitize feature reaching 170°. But every hand washing, tooth brushing, shower, laundry load, etc. requires thought, sometimes avoidance, sometimes a work-around. It has become the new normal, but it's still very not-normal, and I'm well over it.

For the first time yesterday, I read an estimated time of restoration, namely, we'll have potable water service about three weeks after they start pumping from our reservoir. When will that be? Not soon, which means that we'll be without drinking water, in the best case, until mid-December. I've learned much more about water turbidity than I ever wanted to know. It's measured in NTUs (nephelometric turbidity units), and it has to be between 1.5-2.0 at the highest for the city to begin to pump it into the system.

Yesterday, we celebrated its drop from 21.9 to 21.2!

Thank you for caring, and for reading and responding, my friend. All best to you.