THERE’S BEEN A PROBLEM with the toilet in our office. For a few days last week it wouldn’t flush. Using the plunger didn’t improve the situation. It’s happened before. Visiting nature isn’t an option, either. We’re located in what you could call an exposed property, no woods nearby. You get the picture.
There’s no mystery about our problem. Any plumber can explain that after a heavy rain the water table in our neighborhood sometimes rises so high that there’s nowhere for the water in the toilet to go. A few dry days and the system is back in service.
We see the impact of floods on the landscape when what’s left of a hurricane or the rare tornado swoops by. Those kinds of weather events may become more frequent as the influence of our mistreatment of the air, land and water rearranges our climate in ways we we can’t yet imagine. But being human, most of us aren’t going to get worked up for too long about the big events. It’s the small annoyances that spur us to action. Read more…