May 23, 2019 – Thursday
Last night I got BOMBED! No, not in the sense of an explosive incendiary device or that I was drunk as a skunk … I got BATH bombed. I filled the tub and put one of those bath salt/bath bomb things into it – you know, those ones that are to make your skin smooth as silk or chiffon pie. Or something like that.
I envisioned those TV commercials from when I was a kid … the mom up to her neck in steamy water, luxuriating in a tub full of bubbles, candles lit, jungle fronds and gardenias (somehow) swaying in the breeze of her bathroom. Calgon … take me away!
My experience was a bit different than that one … mostly due to no jungle fronds or gardenias but also because my tub is a reject from the Motel 6 variety of bathtubs. Anyone can sit in that tub … but recline? Submerge? Not even possible. I’m not sure a toddler could even lie down in that tub … it’s short, slanted and shallow. The trifecta of awfulness for a bathtub! If you sit in the tub, then the top part of you is cold … if you submerge, your legs rise out of the bubbles like the Sand Hills in Nebraska … minus the cranes.
During my 4 minute soak (as long as I could endure while the song Baby Shark kept looping through my brain) … I realized how much I like my bathroom. Now that sounds pretty weird, even to me … but it’s yellow and cheery with accents of black and brown, aqua and tan and when it’s sunny out (which is not often, especially in the fall/winter here in the NW), it’s the sunniest room in my house. I’ve even thought of setting up my tray table in the tub and working in the room … it’s cozy, quiet, warm, sunny and close to the commode, if needed! What more could I want? Simple pleasures.
I was thinking of my bathtub (again, weird) when I was crossing over the continent on my way home from the Carolinas earlier this month. I was thinking that the next place I move to will have to have a decent bathtub! And as I was thinking that we popped out of some cloud cover and I peered out my airplane window like some high flying bird – somewhere, 30 some thousand feet over some rugged terrain – and I was mesmerized by the green, jagged slopes of ??? I have no idea what as I had no idea where we were. No flight tracker on that airplane! I looked down and saw mostly green hills, jagged and lush, as far as I could see and every once in a while a building would come into view. A teeny tiny Monopoly house or barn or warehouse – in the middle of nowhere. Roads, vehicles, people and animals were diminished to ant-size but I could make out structures. And rivers. A LOT of rivers.
I watched as one started up north and meandered its way south past my view. It was an old river, horseshoeing its way through the land … snaking along in a sinuous ribbon of olive green. It was beautiful with its curves and oxbow lakes here and there. And then it was gone … we’d flown beyond my sight line. But it made me wonder how old that river was, where it was, and what it had seen?
Was it there when the herds of buffalo roamed the prairies? Who were the first people to drink from its waters? How many fish swam in those curves?
A few days after my return home, I was still wondering about that river … and how much water was in this country? And on this globe? And in us?
So, here are my findings … amazingly, 71% of the Earth’s surface is covered by water. Wow … I knew it was a lot but not THAT much! Good thing I know how to swim! And, nearly 97% of that water is oceanic in nature. Again, amazing … as well as a little terrifying!
The United States is roughly 7% water … less than I would have thought. And, (this I knew but thought it was higher) … 60% of the human body is water … and if you break it down even farther … the brain and heart are 73% water (I had NO idea!) … kidneys – 79% … lungs – 83% … skin – 64% and bones – 31%!
So, it’s sunny out but my wifi doesn’t carry to my deck and the rest of the house is in shadow – so, I think I’m going to set up my tray table in my tub, get a glass of water and get busy working while I enjoy the sunshine!