2/7/09 Yet Another Post on Showering

The other day, a friend brought this to my attention:

...it made me smile.

And realize just how many factors go into Enjoyment Of Shower[ing].

At this point, I think I've had every kind of bad shower there is. Showers without enough pressure. Without enough hot water. Without enough water at all. Showers that vacillate between scalding hot and arctic cold. Showers where I only realize after I'm all soaked that I didn't bring any soap and shampoo, so I can either dress and go shopping or settle for whatever chlorine is in the water.

I've learned how to mitigate for a lot of these. At the hotel 4 hours away where I've taken probably 80% of the showers I've gotten in the past two years, I know (now) how to confirm that the water is running through the hot water heater; how to check that the buta tank is full enough to keep powering the hot water heater throughout my shower; how to rinse myself (and, harder, my hair) with barely a trickle of water coming out; how to trick people into thinking that both showers are in use, since there's only enough hot water for one (and it tends to wander back and forth between them if both are going)... And then they up and replaced their hot water heater with an *electric* one with a 20-gallon tank. That runs for about 5 minutes when I'm alone, two and a half minutes if someone else is showering, too. (Plus, they rebuilt the showers, so now I can't trick people into thinking that the empty ones are in use.) So instead of getting one long, glorious hot shower every couple weeks, I now get a short, rushed, and stressful hot shower.

Some things I've learned about myself:

* While high-pressure is nice, it's not important.

* Hot water IS important. Tepid showers make me grumpy and cold showers? I'll get out and stay dirty.

* If I haven't washed my hair in over a week, it takes 3 shampooings to be fully clean.

* If I'm spongebathing out of a bucket, I need to be surrounded by hot air.

* Cleanliness of the shower doesn't matter, either. I've showered with a tarantula, stepping around vomit... If the water is hot and plentiful, I can (and have) put up with nearly *anything*.