I really thought the deconstruction of Camp Davis was finally behind us. We lost power. We lost appliances. Our structural integrity was compromised. My manhood sense of security was called into question. We lived without a fridge. We managed without a kitchen sink (though washing dishes in the bathroom sink next to the toilet is somewhat less romantic than one might imagine).
After all that, for the briefest of moments, we were building again. And then we showed up to Camp D last Friday to discover our main water line had frozen and busted during this second round of the blasted polar vortex. And despite having a plumber out to jump start us back to normal and flowing, he discovered that while he could fix our main line, it wasn’t going to help because the pipe between our house and the well was frozen solid too.
That pipe is buried three feet directly below our living room.
So we went without running water for the weekend. We bought jugs and jugs of high-quality H2O to help us make do. We asked everyone (including our guests, because we are starting to host friends and family again) to go for days without showering. Which is hardly out of the ordinary for a stay-at-home-parent like myself, but a little disorienting for members of actual civilization. I finally managed to hook up our new gas range and double oven, but without a sink or running water on hand to wash dirty pots and pans, elaborate cooking plans were misguided at best (not that it stopped us from whipping up a big meal Saturday night – we just decided to bring those dishes back to DC for washing, because…ambition?).
We had plans to finish a few projects. We’re hosting out of town guests in less than two months and every weekend is precious fixin’ time. Instead we wasted time determining the bare minimum amount of water it takes to effectively flush our toilet.
Which brings me to why I’m not the biggest fan of Winter: It makes everything just a tad more difficult than any other season. Snow requires shoveling, stealing valuable time from other projects. Pipes freeze. Cold hands ache. Building materials shrink. Progress slows.
Which in turn reminds me of why being a stay-at-home-parent can be so frustrating: Operating with children makes everything – EVERYTHING – more difficult. Trips to the grocery store or the bathroom. Cooking dinner. Tying shoes. Having an adult conversation. Reason. Logic. Mathematics. All nearly impossible when children are added to the equation.
Frustrations mount. Problems stack. Then something cracks and you find yourself huddled in the cellar with a strange man and a blast heater. I’ve seen it a hundred times…
But soon. So soon.
To future progress! To completed projects! To rejuvenation!
To Spring.
by 
