This day gave me lovely, unexpected things.
James and I took to a road trip to a favorite little town to buy chocolate we want to tuck into Christmas packages, the ones that have to be mailed in a week or two. While there, we thought we'd stop for lunch at a restaurant we have always enjoyed.
It seemed to be a solid plan.
Here's what happened, though: the little town was filled with people, and all of those people had cars. We veered off the car-clotted main thoroughfare, wended down side roads, adventured onto BACK roads, even.
There was no place to park. And all the while we looked for a space, it rained and rained and rained.
Finally, we decided to abort this portion of the mission. Jim suggested lunch at a tried and true family restaurant on the way home, so we headed out of that sweet little town to the interstate. And, of course, as I turned my left hand directional on, a car across the street backed out of a perfect parking space.
To get to that space, though, I'd have to circle the block, and here's what I think I would see as I sped back around the corner toward that one empty spot: a car coming from the other direction, and neatly pulling in to my perfect space.
No, we thought: we will stick to Plan B.
So we went to that family diner and ran through the rain to get inside, and the kind of waitress who calls one "Honey" took our orders. We ate chicken and mashed potatoes and I had the kind of green beans that genius Ohio cooks make: beans boiled with bits of ham and onion, seasoned just right. It was the perfect lunch for a rainy day, the perfect antidote for a minor disappointment.
And here's what else happened: we stopped at a little city on the way home, where the mother-shop of the chocolatier we had wanted to visit was open, and the parking was wide open, too.
We got the chocolate we needed, and then I thought of a thing I had seen once, in pre-Covid days, that would be a perfect gift for someone who might read this blog, so that's as big a clue as you're getting. I had seen this thing in a shop about 60 feet from the candy makers; it was two doors down, across an alley. So we went there, too, and we purchased something really cool.
And—the merchant there regaled us with stories about the historic space his shop is in. Once it was a bar, and the patrons of that bar included infamous people. (Al Capone was one.)
The storekeeper wrote my receipt on a kind of carbon paper pad, giving me the copy, putting the original in the till. I was charmed by that, something I hadn't seen in a long, long time
The bar, he said, was in the side room of his shop. We should go in and see it.
So we did, and that beautiful space is now stocked with merchandise rather than martinis, but I could imagine dim lights and cigar smoke and quick-eyed men with oiled hair, hefty rings on tanned hands, the lump of a pistol beneath a vest, the scent of danger in the air.
The wood was polished to a fine sheen, on the bar, and on the cabinets reaching to the ceiling. The merchant finished with another customer and joined us in the side room to point out historic details. The bar, he said, has been here since the early 1800's.
I think, I told Jim, we'll have to come back here and look more thoroughly. He agreed it was pretty cool, and I bundled my unexpected find under my jacket, and we ran back out, through the rain to the car.
And then we hopped on the interstate and drove back home, where we stopped at the butcher shop for eggs and milk (which kind of makes sense, when I think about it), and I found a text from a dear friend we were catching up with that night. She wondered if we could meet earlier than planned—4:00, say?
And Mark said, sure, of course; so that's what we did.
We were meeting my friend's new friend when we got together, so there was that little bit of nervousness: will we like this new person? Will we think he deserves the regard our friend has for him?
And he, of course, turned out to be wonderful, which we basically knew from the beginning: our friend would not pal around with a putz. So we sat and ate and talked and laughed, asking questions: have you been here? Have you watched this? Did I tell you about this book I just read?
Our friend's friend felt like our old friend within minutes, and two hours melted away; we left with plans to get together again very, very soon.
And then we came home, and pulled boxes from the basement, cleared off shelves, distributed Santas through the house.
And still, outside, cold rain sluiced steadily, tapped windows as we watched an episode of For All Mankind.
It was a day of lovely, unexpected things.
But it was not, weather-wise, a lovely day.
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And so, as that magic hour drew close, the time when I take the wonderful new book I am reading and head upstairs, I found myself faced with a dilemma: bath tonight or shower tomorrow?
A steaming soak in the tub would be a wonderful thing, stealing away the damp edges of chill from a day of persistent rain.
But, I have meetings to go to tomorrow, and what a nice start to that kind of day a shower would be.
I weighed so many pros and cons I paralyzed myself. Finally, I decided to do some research…maybe that would help me decided. 'Bath or shower' I typed into a search engine.
Surprise: I got millions of hits.
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I read "Is it Better to Take a Bath or a Shower?" on healthline.com. This site's authors looked at the dilemma from a cleanliness and health effects point of view. And here's what they said:
Showers probably get us cleaner than long timber soaks; in a shower, dirty water runs down the drain. Soaking, we soak in that run-off.
BUT…healthline.com sees many merits in baths. A nice, warm soak relaxes muscles, stimulates the nervous system, and gently wafts away flakes of skin. The site cited a very small—so probably not conclusive, but still interesting,—study that show people who tub it daily are less tired, less stressed-out, and less depressed than their showering counterparts.
Also, when you draw a nice steaming tub, you can add things to that luxurious water: oatmeal to exfoliate and to soothe reddened skin; essentials oils (highly recommended: lavender and eucalyptus) to calm and soothe.
And, says the experts at healthline.com, when you've got a cold or the flu, the steam from a hot tub full of can ease congestion and un-knot muscles.
BUT—
..there are advantages to showers, too, says healthline.com.
If you take hot-to-cold showers (this is a thing??? In this kind of shower, the water starts out hot. As you progress, though, you turn the water down, until, finally, you are scrubbing under a treat of cold water.) boost the immune system. A study proves this: hot-to-cold showerers took less sick time over the course of a year than their tub-soaking counterparts.
And here's a benefit you don't have to turn the temp down to receive: showering stimulates circulation, so the blood rises to skin and scalp. Skin glows, hair gleams.
And here's an even more radical method than the hot-to-cold shower: how about a LUKEWARM-to-cold version? This, say the health line.com folks, gets your nervous system excited, releases all kinds of endorphins, and can actually lessen the symptoms of depression.
The final answer here: take what works for you at whatever place you're at right now.
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I hadn't thought about the environmental impact of the way we bathe, but "Bath Vs. Shower: Which Option is Better for the Environment?" (Brightlyeco.com) addresses this issue. And it says that, if one bathes for less than ten minutes, a shower is certainly the better option. It take more electricity to heat a solid tub full of water than to heat the flow for a quick shower.
But, the site acknowledges that quickie showers probably don't happen real often. Once into a soothing, steamy shower, most people like to stay there. After 15 minutes or so, the eco advantages of showering disappear. In fact, because tub-soaking uses a finite amount of heated water, that may actually be the more earth-friendly option that extended time under the rain forest shower head.
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Finally, I read an article by Dr. Andrew Weil : "What's Best: a Bath or a Shower?" (drweil.com). Dr. Weil says that the idea of showers draining away contaminated water is sound, but really, he adds, people who bathe daily probably don't get dirty enough to make sitting in bath water a real issue. He DOES, though, see the environmental value of showers, and he recommends a low-flow shower head, which allow people to shower for longer times, using less water.
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I'll check into that low-flow showerhead, because I know how privileged I am to have ample water, to have this choice. But all this reading about cold showers has propelled me in the warmer direction: on a miserably cold and rainy day, a steaming soak's the right option.
Like the health line.com writers say, the decision should be made on a case-by-case basis. And on this plans-changing, friends-meeting, miserably rainy day, the tub just kind of wins.
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