Sometimes it seems like humanity is a race of amnesiacs. We forget very important life lessons very quickly. My favorite example is the COVID-19 pandemic. Who remembers the embarrassing hoarding that took place? Toilet paper, bread, bottled water, hand sanitizer, soap, canned goods, even prescription medications, all became like fetish properties to keep and store.

My wife Abby and I were not those people. We already had enough toilet paper and soap, and we bought normal amounts of whatever we needed. Even to this day, there are four loaves of bread in my freezer, just in case.

But it’s so easy to forget things we expect and take for granted. Most of us had that predicament handed to us Monday when a 20-inch water main broke on South Cradduck Road, cutting off water to nearly half of Ada and surrounding areas on City water supplies.

For some people, it was like the first time this had ever happened.

Maybe it’s the fact that I love to hike in the desert, or maybe it’s the fact that I find clean water – not surgery drinks – the most refreshing, but I don’t think there is any excuse for not storing enough clean water to get through an interruption in service. Even the worst infrastructure disasters like severe thunderstorm or winter storms are relatively short-lived.

And there is absolutely no excuse for saying, in person or on social media, anything bad about our public servants. Local water departments are constantly on call and constantly working hard to keep the water on, and the fix it when there is a problem.

If you get a chance, stock up on drinking water and cooking water. Water is easy to store.

And if you get a chance, thank the people in the yellow vests who are digging up broken water lines and repairing them so you can have clean, fresh water.