The problem with habits is they’re often hard to break. Even after six months of no house, I still prefer to shower first thing of a morning.
This was not a problem in the warmer months, when I could grab a towel and dart to the outside bathroom block in my undies, but now it geting colder, it’s proving to be an EXPERIENCE.
This morning it was a solid 0C when I woke up and decided to shower. 0C should be no problem, right? Water wasn’t frozen, just a light frost, it’s all good!
Except, we’re using a portable gas hot water system, and it sometimes struggles with getting the water up to a decent temperature in a decent amount of time. Or it turns off on its own. Or a breeze blows the flame out. Just little details really.
Sure, we’ve got a better system to install, but we were organising everything last week right before Anne died, and well, honestly, grief and funeral planning are not conducive to projects. Not conducive to anything except being sad and angry about how unfair things are tbh.
SO
No worries right, I’ll turn the shower on and then give it a few minutes to warm up while I brush my teeth and mop the mud off the floor. (see above: outdoor bathroom block)
The water heated up nicely and then, oh, nothing. No flick whoosh of gas when I turned it off and on again. No gas. Fuck it.
Now please remember I have *darted* to the bathroom. I am wearing nothing but my underwear, a tshirt I slept in, a pair of shoes, and the gas has just run out.
I should have quit, gone and gotten dressed, and showered later.
But I am stubborn and I wanted warm water and clean hair, immediately.
So I went to find the new gas bottle we’d just exchanged. It took me five minutes of swearing and two different tools to remove the stupid plastic plug (WHY DO SOME REQUIRE A FUCKING WHOLE TOOL BOX OMG) crouched in front of the gas bottle, freezing.
And then I made a discovery. See, if you know anything about portable gas bottles right now, you’ll know they’re in the middle of changing over the style of connector. So you have “old” bottles, designed for older connectors, and “new” bottles, with a combo old and new connection.
My hot water system uses the new connection.
And the only full gas bottle in my possession, somehow, was the old style, which won’t work with my connection style.
That’s what we get for swapping bottles at the servo at the end of a long day, rather than at the Supagas.
omg.
YET AGAIN, I remind you, it is 0C and I am wearing NO CLOTHES and I should have given up. I should have.
HOWEVER I want a fucking shower, it’s cold, my legs are red and blue, and I am already fifteen minutes into running around in my goddamned underwear, I may as well crack on. Hypothermia be damned.
Thankfully the bus has the old style connector attached, so I simply (SIMPLY) had to haul the full gas bottle to the bus without dislocating anything, find the key, pull out the 1/4 full bottle from inside its small cramped space, disconnect it, connect up the full bottle, relock everything, haul the bus bottle to the shower, connect everything there and then wait long minutes for the system to give me water above 34C.
SIMPLE. SUCH SIMPLICITY. SUCH A GOOD FUCKING TIME. Clearly I am making AWESOME decisions in the wake of my mother-in-law dying last week and our devastation over that.
omfg.
My shower was non-eventful and eventually my legs and fingers thawed out. Hurray.
Not sure I can recommend this lifestyle. 0/10 would much prefer showering inside and no death mothers. Thx.
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