The Shower Dies

Well, we have…had…an outdoor camp shower inherited from my grandson, that was supposed to hold a column of water, to be heated by the sun, thus providing a nice, civilized-style, hot shower. That never really happened.

To begin with, the black column was decorated with a silver vertical stripe that actually reflected more sunlight than the exposed black part could hear. So if the water wasn't hot from the pipe itself, it was never really more than lukewarm, anyway.

Keith prides himself, having lived in North Dakota in his childhood, on being comfortable taking cold showers. That doesn't stop him from moaning when the cold water first hits him in the morning.

But this morning was different. I heard some kind of popping sound, followed by a gush of water and Keith's yelp.

When I went out to investigate, I found the plastic column camping shower had exploded. Despite being designed for camping, apparently the designers hadn't anticipated it actually being used outdoors for months at a time. Shards of plastic flew everywhere. Luckily no one was in the line of fire.

We hooked the last few feet of a garden hose around the derelict shower to clean ourselves. And, to be honest, it's not even that much different.

And then, inspired by showers I suppose, we went and visited a couple of nearby waterfalls.

Now that my grandson, Zach, is back and working on his own hot-water shower, we are hoping to be using that before long and have actual, hot showers, once more.