Twenty-five years
ago, my first rental unit had no shower.
Many people thought this was awful.
Not me. For five years I lived
with taking baths in a cast iron clawfoot tub.
It was deep and comfortable and I would soak and read. As the water started to cool, I took my toes
and turned the hot water on for a few minutes.
I could do that two or three times before the water was too cold to stay
in any longer. I loved bubble baths or
scented bath oils. Shaving my legs was almost
a pleasure, it was so easy and convenient. And the tub was surprisingly easy to clean.
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| Similar to what I had all those years ago. |
At my parents’ house, I still occasionally took baths,
although I couldn’t lounge in them like I had in my clawfoot tub. When I got chicken pox at the ripe old age of
31, I don’t know what I would’ve done if I couldn’t have soaked in a tub of
Aveeno Oatmeal Treatment.
When my father decided it was time to get a new tub, my
mother and I convinced him to get a deeper tub than standard. He did, except that it was also
narrower. It wasn’t a problem at
first. But when I moved back in with
them after I sold my condo, I discovered it wasn’t comfortable any more. I can’t imagine why. I mean I’m pretty certain that tubs don’t
shrink.
So for the past 13 years, I’ve mostly taken showers. I think I took a bath maybe three times
during that time. But the tub was
available. How else do you wash a dog
when there is no utility sink or a wash tub? And I don’t know about you, but I used the
edge of the tub for lots of things. For
instance, there has almost always been a cat that liked to sit on the edge of
the tub while I showered. It’s also
where I put each foot to shave my legs and then again to dry them when I was
done.
Now I have no choice.
Just a shower stall. And not a
good sized stall either. When I first
saw it, I was worried I’d get claustrophobia in there! I don’t, thank God, but it’s a close thing! I did, however, bleach it thoroughly before I
used it. I don’t know how many back ends
brushed against the sides of the stall!
When the weather started getting warmer, one thing became
apparent. Shaving my legs in that stall
was going to be difficult, if not downright impossible. Even if there was a ledge in there to put my
foot on, there wouldn’t be enough room to do so!
First, I tried to shave just putting my back to the
water. No good. The shave cream was gone before I got more
than one stroke done. Next, I turned the
water off. Okay, that worked—until I
turned the water back on to rinse and it came on cold! Brrrr!
The third time, I turned the shower head until it was mostly off. With just a trickle coming down, I started
shaving. I didn’t even get one leg done
when I realized that the trickle of water was getting hot. More than hot. It scalded me! I have a shower head that I can lift off and
rinse everywhere, so the next time, I tried turning the head to the trickle and leave it hanging
down. Nearly scalded my calf and, when I
went to grab it to turn the water on full, certain other more sensitive areas
were almost burned!
The last few times, I shaved with no shave cream and then
slathered really thick body lotion all over my poor abused legs. My skin is already very dry just from getting
older. *sigh* Add to that, this hard water is very tough on
my skin. It took me a few showers to
figure out that it was the hard water making my knees look like a dried up old
creek bed. Now I’m scraping a razor over
them without benefit of a soothing shave cream.
Or even a cheap shave cream. The
lotion I dug out is the thick lotion I usually use on my feet in the
winter. Although nothing with urea in
it!
I’m considering getting a good electric razor. Do they make such a thing? With technological advances, electric shavers
should be better than a razor!
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| Panasonic Close Curves |
But, in the end, anything I do for my legs, isn’t going to
give Khai a place to sit while I take a shower.
Sitting on the floor just isn’t the same, I guess. Poor kitty!
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