Cold Shower

In a lifetime, I have had only a few cold showers. Most were at campsites where there was no choice. With them, however, it was a hot day and the shower, a great treat. Today's cold shower was a surprise. Yesterday, granted, there had been a storm with fallen trees and branches but, I saw that the power was back on. As usual, I put shampoo on my hair before stepping into the shower that was merrily spewing its usual jet stream, when the shock of cold, not friendly warm water, assailed my cringing form. Although I jumped back to the safe space of my walk-in, the shampoo made it a requirement to proceed, cold water or not. After a few dashes in and out, I found the chilly downpour tolerable. When I exited, shampoo now a memory, the warmth in the room was more than welcome. Later investigation proved that our hot water system is gas controlled, thus the Arctic experience of the changed morning routine. But what happened, made me think what sissies we are. We expect light and heat and all the other comforts we are accustomed to. Perhaps that's why we like sometimes, to go bare dry camping. We like to pit ourselves against Nature. The idea of having to get back to the true basics is a wake up call. It's when you do not have heat or electricity or water that is potable. You have to light a campfire to keep warm, have to boil water before drinking or cooking food,  and even to have the fire, need to find fuel for it. Little gas or alcohol burners eschewed. We revert to our ancient ancestors the primitives who discovered these comforts little by little over the centuries until today, with its electronically monitored everything and safety persons to call when little things go "wrong", we are spoiled and become annoyed or angered if any of them go down. My, oh my, we have to bundle up to keep warm or boil the tap water or not have the daily shower  or shave or bath. We have to wash and do washing by hand. We don't have vehicles to go from here to there. Everything we are spoiled by, that we get with relatively few tax dollars every day of our lives, is something that without the services we take for granted, we have to do ourselves, by ourselves. So you get out of bed and wash in cold water and possibly head out to the privy in back for that certain purpose and come back into a house whose heat is generated by your chopping and firing up wood for heating and cooking. When it's time to go to work, you walk there or ride a horse or straddle a donkey. When you get there, you do all the work without a computer of any kind, if you want to communicate, you speak in person; there are no cell phones. If you are cold, you might wear furry boots and a big parka. Out comes the pen and paper and your head, for the written and numeral sections. Remember adding and subtracting and the multiplication tables.?Where is the  slide rule? Contact lenses or laser treatments for those orbs, uh uh. Dig around for the glasses, my friend. Coffee machine? Never. Didn't you bring your thermos filled with warmish coffee made of beans you ground on a rock? Haven't we come a long way, Baby? Ah civilization, maybe tonight I can have a hot shower?