We Are Free To Drink About The City

My birthday present from Pop;

10 gallons and 4 cases of water from Michigan!

Toledo Mayor D. Michael Collins announced in a news conference this morning that our water in all parts of the city tested as safe for all normal usage. That means that immune system challenged me and all of the kids in town get to be clean too! I know for other adults with MS or any other immune-compromised conditions that’s WONDERFUL news. Some of the kids maybe notsomuch, but I’m sure it makes happy moms and dads too.

I have learned so much the past couple days. The first thing I already knew and that’s that for the most part people are innately caring and generous. I read stories about people who traveled many miles to buy bottled water and also of people who travelled many miles TO Toledo to GIVE water. It was the main topic for discussion in these parts and when our neighbors next door were leaving for a few days at their getaway place that had well water we were unpacking the water Pop got for us. They’d given the neighbors across the street, the one who always put back out garbage and recycling cans during the day since David often is home late and I can do it, some water but when we offered they mentioned that they might need some more. There were water stations where people could get fresh water for free and there was calm and no panic with people helping other people fill jugs and get them to their cars. With no reported incidents and so much great kindness, I think we handled the crisis well as a community. For an affected region of somewhere in the area of a half million people without water for the weekend we did a great job of playing the part of a small town when we needed to. I still love my home and after this weekend I’m quite proud to say I’m from Toledo.

More learning came in the form of finding out about microsystin, the toxin that got into our water. The toxin is from the algae blooms in Lake Erie, although this is not a new problem or limited only to Lake Erie. The toxin got past purification methods in the plant. Now that the levels are back to a safe amount it’s time to find out why the toxin didn’t filter out this time and how to prevent it from happening again. The thing is this toxin is not even one they have to check for even though that same toxin attributed to the deaths of 75 people in a kidney dialysis center in Brazil in 1995 according to the article I read in The Blade this morning. I’m glad we do check for it; like I said no one has to in the US and most states don’t. It’s better to err on the side of caution than wait until there are reported cases of people getting sick.

I’ve read comments from some conspiracy theorists that if there were no reports of people getting sick the whole thing was made up. I find that to be the attitude of someone who must enjoy Russian roulette too. I’ll be honest; I like to read comments after news stories and especially political stories because it makes me feel like a better and smarter person. I should probably feel bad about that, but it’s also good to reiterate that it’s harder to help some people and be prepared for that.

Most importantly I learned about timing and decision making. FI shower every other night, which for someone inside in the air conditioning and no moving a ton is not a big deal, and I showered Wednesday. Friday I was tired and decided that I could shower in the morning before David went to work. Of course by morning I couldn’t even drink the water to take my medicine. So the lesson learned there is that if it’s time to shower, no matter how tired, the water will wake me up, shower already! My flat, dirty-looing hair and itchy skin will be happy tonight!