Serving on the water board

It is raining heavily today and it is almost as dark as night. My little cat went to the door, looked outside and went back to her bed on the hassock. She knows where her options are Usually she can't wait to get outside, but today she is content to be inside where it's warm, and I can't find fault with her judgment. I myself haven't walked outside for almost a week. Bill did walk down to the creek to watch the water rush past and reports that the creek is pretty high. Sometimes the road down below the house floods out and no cars can get through. One year I was visiting Judy and George in their house up here and I couldn't get out for ten days. We washed diapers in water we caught from the rain gutters (the power was out and we had no water or electricity) and cooked on the wood stove. At first it was fun but we were very relieved when the power came on again. The water board has obtained a generator so we don't run out of water now due to electrical shortages.
I served on the water board for a number of years, and distinguished myself by obtaining tax free status for our water company and if someone asked me now how I did it, I would have to admit that I have no idea. It took about three months of research and correspondence with the tax board, and when I finally got the papers affirming our tax-free status, I could hardly believe I had done it. That was several years ago and I doubt if I could do it today. It involved typing up the by-laws and getting them printed out and given to each of the members, among other things.
Serving on the water board was a pretty daunting task in any case, since if the water tested out unsafe to drink, we had to drive around and leave notices on the door of each residence using the water. One time we had to do it during a pouring rain, with me checking out the addresses and Bill trudging up to the houses to affix the notices. The driver of the car had a pounding migraine headache and went home sick afterward. Whatever crisis developed, the water board was responsible for fixing it. When I broke my hip, I had to resign, as I could no longer be of any help.
We have lived up here for over fifteen years - It seems like only a year or two. How time flies!