I continue to live in an alternate universe

[brin_bellway]

[cw: apocalypse, (arguably) poverty]


Cody Reim: With my wife Shae and four kids, we went from using around 300 gallons of water a day to close to 120 gallons a day.

Me: ...I don't actually speak gallons per day: my water bill is in cubic metres per two months. Usually 22, give or take a cubic metre or two. Hey, WolframAlpha?

WolframAlpha:


Me: ???

Me: Wait-- that-- so that would mean--

WolframAlpha:


Me: --*seventy*-- *how*-- what are you even *doing*--

--you're in a *desert*--

Cody Reim: This is normal since an average household uses 300 gallons a day. We were already conserving water because hauled water can be expensive.

Me: ?????????????

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Cody Reim: *describes seven dire-emergency water-saving measures they took to squeeze their per-person water consumption down to approximately my baseline level, six of which are measures I do not take*

Me:


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Eleven hundred words in, he finally mentions that they have livestock (who keeps *sheep* in a *desert*?). But he also says that the livestock collectively use about 12 - 18 gallons per day, so overall I remain very confused.

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(edit: part 2)

Comments

[brin_bellway]

The Region of Waterloo government considers 36 cubic-metres-per-two-months for a family of my size or 54 for a family of his size to be "average": anything above this figure is eligible to have an efficiency audit done.

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Yes, I double-checked that the 22 figure is for the whole two months and *not* the monthly average over the two-month billing period.

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It's not that I *don't* consciously conserve water, of course. I don't let the water run while I'm soaping up anything, whether it be teeth or hair or dishes. If water were no object I'd still do a 2 - 3 times/week shower schedule, but conservation is an excellent bonus. I let the rain do all our car-washing and lawn-watering (and allow any lawn plant that can't thrive on the ambient amount of water to be outcompeted by plants that can: if I'm going to put *effort* into growing something it had better be edible).

But his past self who was using 70 cubic metres per two months thought of himself as conserving water too. And the him that uses 24 cubic metres per two months on his human household members--with two more infants than I have, but "once or twice a week laundry" for six people doesn't sound like he's using cloth diapers--had to go into all-out grid-down mode to do it.

I honestly don't get it.