We have lived in our present home for 12 years blithely assuming all was well with our water supply. When we moved in I noticed there was a water softening system that was not in use. It looked like it hadn't been used in years. I assumed that the previous owners deemed it redundant for our municipal water supply. Not so!
While visiting our daughter several weeks ago, my wife noticed how much nicer her hair felt after washing in their water, which is soft water. From that experience we became aware that maybe we had something wrong with the hardness of our water. Why hadn't we thought of that before? It is part of being unaware when something is obvious but we are seeing but not seeing. For instance our coffee pots have routinely plugged up and required frequently cleaning. The shower heads often have to be changed. All these clues went flying by us.
The upshot of this awakening is a new water softening system. Wow! What a change! Every item that is using water has performed better from showers, to coffee making to clothes washing.
There is more to this story. We have a humidifier attached to our forced air furnace. This was a new furnace installed in February of 2014. For the past 6 plus years I have been oblivious to the need to replace the water pad (filter). You can guess what the pad looked like after 6 years accumulation of hard water deposits. What a mess! Another awakening. It took me several hours to remove the deposits from the frame holding the pad. On top of that the drain tube was completely clogged with debris. After a long soak in hot water and a little probing with a wired it was ready to be reinstalled. Happily a new pad and fully functioning humidifier is in place. I expect that with the new softener in place the replacement of the pad will be probably be on a season by season schedule. To be sure of the maintenance I have entered a reminder into my Google Home smart speaker for a replacement at an appropriate time. Isn't it amazing that things out of sight can be out of mind? However even things in our sight on a daily basis may not register.
To be aware we need to be shaken up from time to time. In our relationships things can be hidden too. I am asking myself what calcifications are accumulating in my routine of daily life.? Are there changes I could make to be more loving and caring both at home and in my social and societal activities? In this time of political and pandemic chaos it behooves us all to look beneath the surface to see what need to be cleaned out and changed.
Finally a comment about the coming ski season. On being unaware, I visited my home ski area of Greek Peak yesterday hoping to pick up my pre-paid season pass. As we all know things on the ski slope will be different this year. To my surprise the passes will not be available until the end of November. Apparently with all the adjustments to comply with pandemic regulations, they have fallen behind on the routine activities. Things will be different. Sadly I do not see the usual coffee hours for our geezer group this year. Probably locker room boot ups will be eliminated and we will be putting on our gear at our cars. However, we should be able to social distance on the slopes. We have spent years unaware of how fortunate we have been to have the freedom of social interaction in the pursuit of the sport we love. I live with the hope that this crisis will pass and we will not necessarily return to a new normal, but will be more aware overall how fortunate we are with what we do have.
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