The Hole

This is a hole in the ground. It is very deep, but alas, not deep enough. If one looks closely one may notice a small shiny spot at the bottom. This is a small amount of water. A very small amount. We have not had a great deal of rain this summer. Those hurricanes seldom make it this far inland. Not that this is a bad thing in itself, but it can become a problem. Today it is actually raining, but not a whole lot. Not nearly enough. But anything is good, and we are thankful.
This is an old well. One might call it an antique in these days of great and wonderful technology. Just a simple hole in the ground. This is not the first time that things have come to this of course. A few years ago even the river dried up.
Many years ago we were in a similar situation. I decided the best way to handle things would be to make the hole deeper. It seemed like a good idea at the time. And so I built an impressive rig with a frame of 2x4s and pulleys and ropes and all kinds of good stuff to facilitate the process. And so fighting waves of claustrophobia, I was lowered into the deep, but dry, hole. I could say that one has never lived until one has spent time in a well, but that is not really true. I will say, however, that it is a unique experience. I will also say that even the most macho of men should listen to their wives at times like this. The earth at the bottom of such a hole is quite hard and must be chipped out slowly and with a great deal of effort. It must then be pulled out in a bucket by an assistant. All this chipping and scraping and huffing and puffing uses a lot of oxygen and produces an amount of carbon-dioxide which has a tendency to settle in low places. There are not many places lower than the bottom of a well. I suppose hell is lower, but that's another affair. My Sweetie had begged me to lower a candle into the deep each time before my descent, a trick she had picked up from a children's book one time. I, of course thought it unnecessary. I'm kinda dumb like that sometimes. I was having a terrible headache while working down there, but being a guy and all, I was just toughing it out as they say. But then came the dizziness an I almost passed out. About all I could do was mumble something like "You better pull me up". And with the help of the young'uns, she did. I did not feel real good, and looked bad enough to scare them. Just for the record, the candle never made it half way to the bottom before being snuffed. In a few days, there came a gullywasher that fixed the problem.
Did all this help ? Yeah it did. The well is a little deeper now, although it still goes dry at times. And I have one more reason to listen to my Sweetie.