baths
Why is everyone so keen for me to take a bath?
We aren't talking a hygene issue: I shower frequently. Granted less so as it's winter and it's cold, so this isn't quite the daily necessity.
But people keep telling me I should take a bath.
Seems that they think these are wonderful, relaxing ways of relieving tension and applying herbs and homeopathic stuff to the body.
They are, uniformly under 5'7" those who suggest this. No, not suggest, who repeat to the point of insistence and with repetition that is into and beyond ad nauseum.
So why not shut them up and take one?
Why don't I like them?
In dry winter air ... water evaporates making you feel cold: it's winter, staying warm is at a premium.
I'm 6'3, almost 6'4".
In your basic U.S. domestic bathtub there is maybe 4.5 feet of length to play with. The big, old claw tubs are *deeper* but only maybe another 3" on that.
A bath for me is best described as an "ass and ankles" experience. Generally there is nothing else below the waterline. The rest of me is damp and exposed to the effects of evaporation. The herbs/salts/ingredients contact less than 10% of my surface area. (The last concotion was to affect my elbow, which is a good 8" above the waterline.
Yes, in the claw tub at home I can straighten my legs ... mostly ... slight improvement.
And I could put my feet up ... and lie down and get most of my torso in.
The problem with that is that most smaller people tend to not have to do this ... so they pile all their bathing paraphernalia on the rim, where my feet wind up. Then there is getting back up ... finding hand holds for leverage, with your feet in the air ... and hands and tub wet and slick ... the exhertion and slips and intense grip required pretty much undoes the relaxing effects of the back (which were minimal in the first place because to get to lying down your feet go in the tub first ... then you lie down putting wet, sensitive feet -- and mine have a fair amount of surface area -- up into the dry, cold air .... )
Hi, my name is Tim and I'm tall.
I am powerless over my height and my life has become unmanageable.
I can't get much farther than that because I do not believe that a power greater than myself will restore me to a shorter size.
To double the torment of this constant reminding of my height disability ... I have loved baths.
In Japan (where you'd think that the 4.5 foot tubs would be more than adequate given the average height in that country) they have *huge* tubs. Filled with lovely hot water. Tubs that this 6'3" gaijin could sit in, enveloped to his chin in that lovely water.
But unless the necessity of hygene requires, this lanky fellow has promised himself that he will not submit to the torture of a *bath* until he either returns to Japan, or has the resources to build a proper ofuro.
Let this stand as notice to the world ... and especially to those who are height challenged on the other end of the length spectrum ... that recommendations of bathing are no longer welcome.
We aren't talking a hygene issue: I shower frequently. Granted less so as it's winter and it's cold, so this isn't quite the daily necessity.
But people keep telling me I should take a bath.
Seems that they think these are wonderful, relaxing ways of relieving tension and applying herbs and homeopathic stuff to the body.
They are, uniformly under 5'7" those who suggest this. No, not suggest, who repeat to the point of insistence and with repetition that is into and beyond ad nauseum.
So why not shut them up and take one?
Why don't I like them?
In dry winter air ... water evaporates making you feel cold: it's winter, staying warm is at a premium.
I'm 6'3, almost 6'4".
In your basic U.S. domestic bathtub there is maybe 4.5 feet of length to play with. The big, old claw tubs are *deeper* but only maybe another 3" on that.
A bath for me is best described as an "ass and ankles" experience. Generally there is nothing else below the waterline. The rest of me is damp and exposed to the effects of evaporation. The herbs/salts/ingredients contact less than 10% of my surface area. (The last concotion was to affect my elbow, which is a good 8" above the waterline.
Yes, in the claw tub at home I can straighten my legs ... mostly ... slight improvement.
And I could put my feet up ... and lie down and get most of my torso in.
The problem with that is that most smaller people tend to not have to do this ... so they pile all their bathing paraphernalia on the rim, where my feet wind up. Then there is getting back up ... finding hand holds for leverage, with your feet in the air ... and hands and tub wet and slick ... the exhertion and slips and intense grip required pretty much undoes the relaxing effects of the back (which were minimal in the first place because to get to lying down your feet go in the tub first ... then you lie down putting wet, sensitive feet -- and mine have a fair amount of surface area -- up into the dry, cold air .... )
Hi, my name is Tim and I'm tall.
I am powerless over my height and my life has become unmanageable.
I can't get much farther than that because I do not believe that a power greater than myself will restore me to a shorter size.
To double the torment of this constant reminding of my height disability ... I have loved baths.
In Japan (where you'd think that the 4.5 foot tubs would be more than adequate given the average height in that country) they have *huge* tubs. Filled with lovely hot water. Tubs that this 6'3" gaijin could sit in, enveloped to his chin in that lovely water.
But unless the necessity of hygene requires, this lanky fellow has promised himself that he will not submit to the torture of a *bath* until he either returns to Japan, or has the resources to build a proper ofuro.
Let this stand as notice to the world ... and especially to those who are height challenged on the other end of the length spectrum ... that recommendations of bathing are no longer welcome.