h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This morning I went through my usual routine first thing:

Wake up
Look at the clock
Get up, put the radio on and drink the I poured last night
Go back to bed and listen to the radio for about 30 minutes
Get up again
Put away the sofabed and turn on the PC
Empty last night's tea leaves from the teapot
Turn on the shower
Fill the kettle and switch it on
Go back to the bathroom and take a shower

No hot water!!! Oh bother. So I had to take a stone cold shower this morning. It brings a glow to your cheeks (all of them ), I can tell you

I'll go through a lot of privations - but a cold shower is one thing I simply _will_ not do.

Gotta have a shower in the morning. Ain't no two ways about it.

I'll wash my body with a cold washcloth, and I don't mind hanging over the bath to wash my hair. I usually wash my face with cold water anyway. But there is no way I will stand under a cold shower.

Not since my days at Ashford when we had to do the 5am log run, through the mud (it was autumn) and then go back for a shower and whatever before the 7am uniform inspection. Due to some quirk, and a "couldn't give a stuff, since there are only 5 of you" attitude by the staff, we only had warm water in the female block at about 3pm. Which meant that the permanent staff all ran over and used it all up, while those of us on my course, most in desperate need of hot water, only had cold. I used to go over to the guys block - but then I was an old sweat and knew a few of the guys well enough that they kept lookout for me. But the young lasses - no chance. Unless I took pity and took them over one at a time.

I used to have a cold shower every summer day when I lived across the ocean - with there being proper summers there with actual warmth. I never did it before or since, though.

"...knew a few of the guys well enough that they kept lookout for me."

I'm sure they did!

*"Ishnan" is the point at which the body, by its own virtue, creates the temperature that it can beat off the coldness of the water.*

Who knew?


http://www.earthclinic.com/Remedies/showers.html

For everyone who has ever died of hypothermia, that's a cold comfort.

(Sorry. That pun's even worse than usual.)

That all sounds very fine, but unless I have access to cold water only, I don't think I have the will power to avoid the hot water tap each morning, however good it might be for me.

I'd rather be smelly! I would have said I'd rather be dirty, but I'm usually filthy five minutes after having a bath anyway because of the dogs.

Cats rule, cats rule, hatcha cha cha chaaaaa

Cats drop hair and lick too you know. And I bet they walk in mud then sit on your lap, or put their feet on your leg just like dogs.

Oh goodness yes. As they say, cats aren't clean: they are covered in cat spit (and yet, still I cuddle my )

Cat fur smells Dog fur smells

Yeah, cats are far from perfect little at times, but they don't lick your boat race with a big slobbery tongue the way that dogs do, and they're (mostly) smart enough to not get muddy in the first place

It's true I would rather Fred didn't attempt to wash my face - he normally only does it when he wants something (for me to get out of bed usually) - but he always tries to do it when I get out of the bath. I guess he prefers me to smell like him!

It may be an issue if I ever manage to get a job again. Unless I get a job working with dogs.

The only times I have purposely taken cold showers has been after becoming severely overheated. In these cases they're not therapeutic, they're first aid!

After a few sunburns I've also taken cold showers, but not initially... I start off with body temperature water and slowly decrease it because my skin can be so sensitive as to detect the shadow of a single leaf. Going strait to cold water would probably make me jump out of it (my skin that is).

Being a redhead on the Texas Gulf Coast can be risky.

On my way back from lunch, a Tom Waits song came on the radio and I instantly thought of you, Gosho...

"Well I woke up this mornin'
With the cold water
With the cold water
With the cold water
Well I woke up this mornin'
With the cold water
With the cold water
With the cold water..."

I'm sorry guys, but a cold shower first thing in the morning, just moments after getting out of bed isn't on the cards. Besides being far too much of a shock to the system after having just woken up (no, I really don't need to be jolted awake that way), showering in the morning is meant for cleaning. I spend too long in there soaping and rinsing. And some the parts I soap and rinse are... delicate If I'm going to take a cold shower it's going to be later in the day, like maybe now for instance, after having just got home from work.

Surely it depends on the ambient temp?: Our cold water here at the moment is pretty damn cold, but in the summer its a lot warmer even ou tof hte cold tap so might jsut* about be bearable