November 24th, 2013 – The last week begins……and power rationing continues….oh wait no water too???....and what the heck is that smell???

On the positive side….we are all fully prepared for service on a submarine – no lights – no water and an increasingly unpleasant smell that we cannot quite place.

 On the negative side – we have had power rationing since the 16^th of the month….did we mention also the rates increased 68% at the same time?  We sometimes have power in the AM….sometimes the PM and sometimes the middle of the night. 

We have been without water for more than 2 days…this is a real problem for us…did I mention my toilet is also broken….flushing now requires 3 hands – and that doesn’t count the manual water from the bucket. 

There is an awful smell in the house and we have been looking for a week to try and locate the source.  Our friend Martin came over to see us and agreed the smell was awful.  He went into the crawl space in the ceiling as I was convinced it was a dead animal….nothing at all up there.  We had already cleaned the refrigerator….cleaned the cupboards, and investigated as much as I was able to – given the size of the bugs and spiders one is likely to encounter on the top shelf of the kitchen storage area.  Martin however is a fearless International Coordinator and went thru the entire area without finding anything.