Sunday morning Sam and I cleaned out the hallway, which included removing a mattress, couch, dinning room table and extra large oriental rug. I bet your thinking, “wow that’s a big hall way,” but no….we just piled the stuff from floor to ceiling. Underneath all that furniture we found: our hot water heater surrounded by a pool of water. The landlord was called and a plumber showed up with a brand spankin’ new one. No big deal right? Well he didn’t finish the job he came to do because apparently he had a party to go to. Thus, the hot water to our apartment was turned off.
Now, if I was somewhere in the southern hemisphere, like Carriacou, for example with warm tropical weather, a cold shower would bother me. But when you’re in New York and it’s only 32 degrees outside a hot shower is a definite must. I guess I could have driven 20 minutes to my parents [for a second time] that day, but since I’m environmentally conscious I opted not to waste my gas. So, I called my friend, Liz, except her hesitation made me think twice about using her bathroom, since she described it as “not very clean.” The fact that I hadn’t showered over the weekend also classified me as “not very clean.” I thought that I would save us both the embarrassment and find another solution.
Ten pots of boiling water later and one porcelain bathtub – I was clean. Sam explained to me that back-in-the-day this is what people had to do, in order to bathe. However, this was not very reassuring.
Let me help you visualize:
Picture all four burners on the stove with various pots of water….after 8-10 minutes finally it’s boiling.
….then one by one the pots are cautiously carried into the bathroom….not one drop of scolding hot water spilled [success]….then dumbed into the tub…this method was repeated over and over until my bath was too hot.
I actually had to add more cold water before I got in. After washing my hair in dirty bath water, I didn’t feel that clean, but at least it was entertaining.
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