There are those mornings when you wake up and the air is chilly and your bed is warm and you feel, like Homer Simpson put it, “Ah, I’m just big toasty cinnamon bun.
I laughed out loud reading this post, Will. I am so there with you on the hot/ cold issue. Reading about your NY experience reminded of the days when I lived there and had to take ice cold showers on a winter morning when the building suddenly ran out of hot water and I had to get to an audition in 30 minutes. Yikes, that was painful!
We put in a “water saving instant “ hot water system throughout the house because I was tired of wasting gallons of water waiting for it to heat up ( I used a bucket to catch those gallons but lugging them out to the garden was an ordeal in itself!). Well, it still seems to take as long and use as much water to get the hot water to my bathroom as it did pre water saving system. And it’s nearly impossible to get the shower to a non-scalding/ freezing temp! I feel your pain, Will!!
Ah, young grasshopper, you are — as always — wise beyond your years. I remember a shower at my in-laws where it would take a safe-cracker to find the Goldilocks spot between too hot and too cold. I am currently in out-of-town housing where the shower water temperature once I am in the shower perversely oscillates between a little too hot and a little too cold. I assume that someone else in the building line taking a shower or flushing a toilet or a cloud passing over the sun is responsible for this insidious torture. I also relate to the home-team knowledge of how to hold the toilet handle so the toilet actually flushes. If you come visit us, I will give you the secret. For $5.
I don’t know what Susan Peterman is complaining about. The hot water comes on very quickly in my bathroom since we put in that instant hot. She could, of course, take a shower in my bathroom, but she HATES the way the remodel turned out so she tries to avoid going in there, ever. Personally, I love my bathroom. It’s bright, got lots of cabinets, a great print of two towels hanging on a rack, one messy and one neat, and did I mention the hot water comes on super fast? But I digress...you asked about how others solved the Gordian knot of this dilemma. We’ve established I don’t have the problem now, but I used to, and my only solution back then was, try not to sweat too much, so I wouldn’t feel compelled to take another shower the next day. One fringe benefit of that was, since I wasn’t doing it every day I could feel less guilt about letting the water run long enough to set a stable temperature. That’s it. That’s all I got. Unless you want to come over and use my shower. Which, you know, mi casa es su casa.
Not to mention that when a toilet is flushed on the Lower East Side, it somehow seems to affect the cold pressure in Brooklyn...let the scalding begin. First thing I check in a hotel room is the shower pressure...don't just turn on the tub faucets & be satisfied, pull that knob...there can be a misguided translation between shower & tub.
My favorite line of this essay : glacier-run-off-cold to molten-lava-hot. Thank you, young sir!
I laughed out loud reading this post, Will. I am so there with you on the hot/ cold issue. Reading about your NY experience reminded of the days when I lived there and had to take ice cold showers on a winter morning when the building suddenly ran out of hot water and I had to get to an audition in 30 minutes. Yikes, that was painful!
Oh my lord that sounds like HELL!
Yeah…and that’s not even mentioning WATER PRESSURE!
Yuuup! That’s a whole other kettle of fish! There’s a near limitless amount of essays I could write just about showers!
Love this title! Luckily for me I am always cold so a shower is almost never too hot unless it’s literally burning me
Hahah you really are ALWAYS cold. That’s why we have heating pads/blankets in every room!
We put in a “water saving instant “ hot water system throughout the house because I was tired of wasting gallons of water waiting for it to heat up ( I used a bucket to catch those gallons but lugging them out to the garden was an ordeal in itself!). Well, it still seems to take as long and use as much water to get the hot water to my bathroom as it did pre water saving system. And it’s nearly impossible to get the shower to a non-scalding/ freezing temp! I feel your pain, Will!!
Ah, young grasshopper, you are — as always — wise beyond your years. I remember a shower at my in-laws where it would take a safe-cracker to find the Goldilocks spot between too hot and too cold. I am currently in out-of-town housing where the shower water temperature once I am in the shower perversely oscillates between a little too hot and a little too cold. I assume that someone else in the building line taking a shower or flushing a toilet or a cloud passing over the sun is responsible for this insidious torture. I also relate to the home-team knowledge of how to hold the toilet handle so the toilet actually flushes. If you come visit us, I will give you the secret. For $5.
I don’t know what Susan Peterman is complaining about. The hot water comes on very quickly in my bathroom since we put in that instant hot. She could, of course, take a shower in my bathroom, but she HATES the way the remodel turned out so she tries to avoid going in there, ever. Personally, I love my bathroom. It’s bright, got lots of cabinets, a great print of two towels hanging on a rack, one messy and one neat, and did I mention the hot water comes on super fast? But I digress...you asked about how others solved the Gordian knot of this dilemma. We’ve established I don’t have the problem now, but I used to, and my only solution back then was, try not to sweat too much, so I wouldn’t feel compelled to take another shower the next day. One fringe benefit of that was, since I wasn’t doing it every day I could feel less guilt about letting the water run long enough to set a stable temperature. That’s it. That’s all I got. Unless you want to come over and use my shower. Which, you know, mi casa es su casa.
Cold showers should be restricted to Sweden
Will,
Not to mention that when a toilet is flushed on the Lower East Side, it somehow seems to affect the cold pressure in Brooklyn...let the scalding begin. First thing I check in a hotel room is the shower pressure...don't just turn on the tub faucets & be satisfied, pull that knob...there can be a misguided translation between shower & tub.
My favorite line of this essay : glacier-run-off-cold to molten-lava-hot. Thank you, young sir!