Tuesday, September 15, 2009

A rude morning wake-up

I've been just a bit muddle-headed the past few days. I've been fighting a nasty cold with nasty symptoms. I am not reluctant to medicate to alleviate the worst of my symptoms. My mom was a public health nurse and dosed my siblings and I well whenever we got sick. So, if my nose starts to close and my throat burn, I head straight to the pharmacy and stock up. My current round of over-the-counter goodies includes DayQuil, NyQuil, and Afrin nose spray (extra moisturizing, of course). On top of that, I've already been through about 10 boxes of Puffs (plus Lotion) tissue and think I'll go through another 10 before this is over.

When you wake up in the morning, after having pumped your system full of the aforementioned drugs, it's not so much that you wake up as it is that you move out of a state of total unconsciousness to one of mobile unconsciousness.

It was in that state that I entered the bathroom this morning to take my shower. I think I had one eye half open (the other still felt glued shut) as I stepped into the shower. I reached down, turned on the water and... holy crap! Cold water sprayed me and I jumped back about 3 feet. Both eyes open now, I tried to squeeze between the shower wall and the cold stream to reach down and turn it off. After a few brutal seconds, I finally got the water turned off and laid my head against the wall to try and recover. I got out of the shower, reached back in, turned the water on to let it heat up and stood there on the rug, cold and dripping while I waited. This is where you say "awwwww...poor baby".

I really don't think it matters that this happened while I'm fighting a cold. I'd have hated it and had the same reaction even if I'd been healthy and well. It just seemed worse this morning because I was so fuzzy-headed.

Now that I've bored you with all that, let me get to the thought I had, after the water heated and I climbed back into the shower, that prompted this insipid post...

Are there actually people out there who get in the shower first and THEN turn on the water?

2 comments:

Brian Tkatch said...

Heh. No, i hit the water first, or stay at a safe distance.

I'm more concerned over my neighbor taking a shower. We have separate hot water tanks, but this building has cold water taps that are connected. I can get burnt, or frozen when it goes off.

Joel Garry said...

Googling for it shows the answer is yes. I guess some people just need rude awakening in the morning.

My shower is very far from the water heater, so the previous owner of the house added a small electric water heater for, shall we say, performance optimization. He put a switch in the basement next to the switches for the basement lights. Sure enough, any time any workman (like the cable guy) works in the basement, they oh-so-thoughtfully turn off the lights when they leave. I find out the next morning as I'm waiting and waiting, wondering if the water heater is working... we have a serious drought going on in my region.

word: exsial