Today didn’t start well. I waited and waited for the shower to get hot, wondering, “What if the water heater was broken? That would be bad.”
Well, that was the reality. I had a very eco-friendly fast-splash instead of a shower, went to warn Lloyd then went to the basement to see what was wrong. The fire was out, but it restarted with no problem. (Lloyd took a cold shower.)
After work I started to do laundry. The water was cold. The pilot light was out again. We tried restarting it but it wouldn’t stay lit. Dang it! This means calling someone to come in my messy house and fix things. Double dang it. Lloyd called our neighbor to ask him to come over when he could. I began making plans for my Emergency Shower. (I couldn’t do another fast-splash.)
Hooray for Making Do! It’s my favorite! My mind raced with various possibilities, and I settled on creating a Cooler Shower to use in The Gross Basement. Yay!!
The materials:
Cooler with drain spigot: Check.
Tubing that we have around for….. what do we have that around for? Check.
Plumbing tape: Check.
Boiling water. Check.
Regular water: Check
Insert tube in drain spigot.
Wrap lots and lots and lots and lots of plumbing tape around the end. Pull back through to check seal. Dang it. That wasn’t enough tape. Use more!!
Done. Coil up the extra tubing inside so the water won’t leak out when you fill it. Go boil some water.
I knew that the water needed to be high enough that it would pour out, so I made a precarious set-up in the basement. (We have a ‘shower’ that was installed over a floor drain from when Lloyd’s brothers worked here in the summers.) Yes, it looks filthy, but that’s just because it is.
It also gave me the chance to use my Shower Flip Flops!
(They have showers at some campgrounds, and I knew that if I ever wanted to use one I’d need footwear. I remembered that long ago we had a luau for a co-worker and I bought dozens of foam flip-flops to use as name tags. I still have a bunch.) I have blurred my feet to spare your eyes.
Anyway, I was happy as a clam. I had about 4 gallons of near-boiling water mixed with 2 or 3 gallons of regular water. It lasted so long (7 minutes?) I actually got bored. Bored with joy! Best shower ever!
The cats were very confused, and Lloyd declined to try my system. He said he would prefer to take a cold shower in the morning. I’m not hurt. *sniff*
Brad says
Hahaha! I laughed out loud at your blurred feet picture.
Also, I’m glad you explained why you had shower flip flops. I wondered if you were turning into a Survivalist and preparing for the apocalypse. Though I’m not sure if shower flip flops are a requirement for surviving the apocalypse. Rigging a nice cooler-and-tubing shower? That’s probably an apocalypse skill.
Lauren says
I have looked at so many survivalist videos on YoutTube, I’m sure I’m on some government list somewhere. It’s not my fault they talk about such interesting things -- how else am I going to hone my apocalypse skills? 😉
Peggy says
Genius as always! But I don’t think I could take a shower in the open like that. I like to feel cocooned. I would have had to hang a shower curtain somehow.
Lauren's dad says
Is the problem a bad thermocouple?
You had enough pots and kettles to heat that much water?