Yesterday, I went to go make myself a cup of Peppermint Tea in the afternoon. I had no spring water left so I went to go do what I generally dread to do -- use the water from the sink here in the office.
I don't like to do it for a variety of reasons; sanitation being one of them. The kitchens and bathrooms in these buildings are horrifying. I often envy my friends who work in the commercial industry and who have beautiful buildings, with sanitary conditions.
Another reason, is that I'm convinced the water on base is contaminated. I would never in a million years drink out of their water fountains, or drink coffee from the "coffee clubs" - because I see the residue left in the containers that they use for their "clean water". I have to choke back my regurgitations when I dare to even glance in the direction of the coffee maker.
To add insult to injury, the truly scary thought is that I've know far too many people in this Base community who either have Cancer, had Cancer...or have succumbed to Cancer. I'm amazed a study hasn't been done yet, because while I know the law of averages would determine that a certain percentage of people who work in the same place over a certain amount of time would potentially have an amount of people who may get sick; I firmly believe that we would fall in line way above that average. There are too many buildings in particular that have had multiple people within be sick -- at the same time! One of them being the building I just left a few months ago -- the one I wrote about last December as being deemed "unfit" because of the mold, mildew and (gasp!) Asbestos. The one that used to be nicknamed, "The Cancer Building" much to my chagrin. But I digress....
Back to my tea.... I need to have it, so I think "It's only one cup of tea. It won't kill me." I turn the faucet on, and pour the water into the cup I got at Whole Foods earlier that day. My nice and clean organic paper cup was filled with this dirty, yellowish-rust colored water. When I tell you my stomach turned.....I'm not exaggerating. My handy dandy co-worker who was in there said, "Oh, you didn't put on the filter - that will clear it up!". (Whew - there's a water filter! There's hope yet!) He turns on the filter, (which is horribly dirty, and crusty, and I can't go on for fear of throwing up in my mouth...) and I have now my clean organic cup filled with....slightly less yellowish-rusty colored water. I shudder to think of the last time someone actually changed the filter itself! (Which is potentially more dangerous than the original water that goes in there!) But I needed my tea. So I looked on the bright side (as we all know I tend to do) and said aloud "Well, I have to microwave it to heat the water anyway - so that should sterilize it, right?". Sure, only to discover that it takes not 45 seconds, not 65 seconds -- but four flipping minutes to make the water hot in our "new" microwave. What?!?
Which made me wonder, what will kill me faster? The disturbingly not normal water -- or the amount of time in the microwave I'm heating it up with?
My co-worker politely chimes in "It's probably just iron in the water, which is okay. At least the water is no longer quarantined."
Me: (choking back my horror): Quarantined?
Co-worker: "Yes, about 6 years ago no one was able to drink the water in the building because it was so bad."
Me: Hmmm.. Yeah, not feeling so good about this tea right now.....
Fortunately, there's another co-worker here who brings his own coffee maker/espresso machine as well as bottled water. He saw me taking my 4 minute long, and now slightly burnt smelling water out of the microwave and said "oh, no....you can't possible be doing that to yourself."
(Finally, a voice of sanity in this place.)
And then he graciously offered to allow me to make my tea using his machine -- and I was able to enjoy my tea in peace.
And people think working for the government is glamourous.
5 comments:
That's really ironic because just today as I was sifting through raw sewage in the dump where I live, I got into this HUGE fight with a seagull over a piece of rotten flesh that we both wanted to eat. We were tugging back and forth, maggots flying every which way...and the next thing you know, I'm rolling in a pile of medical waste! Those used hypos are just too pokey. Eventually I scooped up some dung and threw it at Mr. "That's my piece of carrion!" seagull, but man! What a lot of work.
Plus, I don't like peppermint tea.
-Dr. Strangelove
Thank goodness for your other sane co-worker! Gross! I wonder if you could take a sample of your water somewhere for testing...
Oh please Nichole - it's unfortunate, but - even though the building is deemed unfit for occupation (the one that I was in previously) -- everyone's still there. I think the only thing that would make them close the building down, would be like a biological warfare attack. And even then I question...
Dr. Strangelove - sounds like you'd fit right in at my work. Maggots, rotten food....cockroaches. We don't have medical waste, but we DO have coworkers who clearly don't know how to use a toilet properly. :)
"The one that used to be nicknamed, "The Cancer Building" much to my chagrin."
I've never heard it called that. The Cancer Building is the windowless one behind the Brown Building. That's the one where an inordinate amount of workers got brain cancer.
I do not however believe it has been deemed unfit to work in and I'm pretty sure I'm a person in the know. That is a statement made by someone with an opinion and if it's who I think it is, usually the wrong one.
I have to admit though it is truly a dump. I'll probably be retired and long gone when the new building is finally ready for occupancy.
Hey NH Ronin - Yes, I can't remember who it was, but someone I know who worked in that building before we did told me that is what her organization used to call it before we moved in; I think when CX was there. 5 people were sick. Yikes.
And, yup - it was deemed unfit. It was in the Lowell Sun as well as the Boston Globe. I wrote my original post last year from the article in the Lowell Sun. Congress awarded the base money to build a new building because that building was deemed unfit for the "force protection program office" that was in there. Check it out.... I wouldn't have said it - if hadn't been reported.
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