Life in a Northern Town

I've been calling the water district all week to get service established at the mountain house. For the last couple of days I just got an answering machine. An actual machine, with a tape in it. Saying, "you've reached Mark at the water district" etc. When I first got the machine, I Googled the water district to make sure I had the right number. They don't have a website. But all the white pages listings I found had the number I was dialing to be the correct number. So I guessed "Mark" was customer service, except when I listened to the whole message he said he was out in the field working on an outage. So he's both field and customer service.

I spoke to him today and got everything established in about 30 seconds. He didn't want my phone number or social security number or anything. He asked me to send a check, but didn't put any restrictions on timing. He didn't want to know if I ever had utility service in my name before, or where I work. I found the whole thing amusing and bizarre. I told my new landlord and they said they call him Mark, the water dude. So I guess he is field, customer service, and the entire water district in one person.