Shower Point
You're a dirty, dirty man
You and that other woman, you're two of a kind
But you forgot one thing baby when you were doing me wrong
That I'm a good house keeper
I'm gonna take my broom and sweep
All of the dirt out in the street
--Dirty Man, Laura Lee
Don't need a man to treat me mean
I need a man to help me clean
Someone who's heaven sent
Someone to help pay rent
Someone to share dreams and wishes
Someone to help me do the dishes
--Housework, B-52's
Are you is a quandary over laundry?
Is your residence teaming with pestilence?
Frau Klaus cleans your house . . . with discipline
--Used Condoms in the Trash,
Farces Wanna Mo
Cleanliness is next to Godliness
_________________
One of the luxuries of America -- Ranger's America -- has always been hot water and hot showers. This became his passion after being overseas for two years: Enjoying hot water (literal, not figurative.)
Fast-forward to 2011, and America is the sole Superpower, which should imply it is the leader of the First world. With that charge comes the responsibility to be exemplary in the basics of a civilized life. Sanitation would seem to fall in that category and yet . . . there is no hot water in our state-run Rest Stops (those which have not been shuttered) or in our state buildings.
Call us idealistic, but being a Superpower means being able to properly wash and rinse our hands after a toilet stop. In addition to no hot hater, the limited-use water faucets have such poor water pressure it is questionable if germs are flushed from our hands when we do bother to brave the icy water.
When confronting cold water in the bathrooms of a local restaurant, the manger said the health code was that hot water must emerge after 30 seconds of running the faucet. Who waits 30 seconds, and why the waste of water?
We have the greatest Defense (Offense?) budget in the world and on the State level we can afford to give tax breaks to corporations, yet ignore the first responsibility of a social order -- to keep clean.
Ironically, while contemplating this Ranger met an Assistant General Counsel for the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration who expressed that not only do the toilets in her State building have no hot water but the soap dispensers are often empty as they are only filled weekly. This is the AHCA for a key state in the world's only Superpower.
To borrow from Mr. Coleridge, Water, water, everywhere / nor any adequate to kill germs. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states: "It is well-documented that one of the most important measures for preventing the spread of pathogens is effective hand washing." Hot water is necessary to remove the surface oils which retain dirt and bacteria and viruses.
Implication of cold water taps? We don't know: Hand washing is only a token gesture? It is a cabal to keep the health care industry packed with individuals sick with E. coli infection? Those sanitary hand wipes that Monk uses and waterless alcohol gel hand cleansers will be a hot new commodity (and investment)? But ... what if they are manufactured in China, and the alcohol content is below 60% -- not sufficient to kill germs?
So you get ill, and hope your bacterial strain is not resistant to the effects of the prescribed antibiotic. Lest you get caught in the maws of the health care behemoth.
All for the lack of a little hot water.
Labels: hot water, sanitation, world superpower questions
posted by rangeragainstwar at 12:26 PM
16 Comments:
RAW's eclectic musings have aligned an interesting synchronicity. Just this morning I was ranting to my wife about our own little water issues.
We live at the edge of a town that draws water from a local lake. We are the last property on the local municipality water line. What this means is that the water sits in the pipe for a long time and all of the chlorine evaporates out and bacteria grows. We get intestinal infections; especially in the summer.
Worse, chlorine or not, apparently the water contains toxic contaminents from the lake. A notice was issued a couple years ago announcing what these contaminents are and that though some people - like scientists - say the toxins are linked to cancer of the stomach, intestine and bladder, the local yocals had determined that there really is nothing to worry about.
The well produces very sulfar laden water and the horses won't even drink it. It's so bad that it instantly clogs the filtration system we tried to use to ammelliorate the problem.
So yesterday we ran out of bottled water and I just had to have coffee and I used the tap and now I have a gut ache. And there I was this morning, "It's the god damn 21st century and we pay heavy taxes and the water is as bad as a latin american jungle....."
Next time I run out of bottled water I think I'll make my coffee with vodka.
avedis
Avedis,
We have 2 problems here.
-drinking water
-washee washee water.
I live on the end of the line also, which is a comment/observation about both of us, i'm sure. Our water comes from a creek that over flows and gets contaminated. The pipes are as you describe. It's worse after i'm gone a while and the water sits in the pipes. We also have fungicides/insecticides/herbicides largely used in farming. It's really a witches brew.
We have really screwed our water resources, and we don't even discuss this much. We are talking about building high speed trains while our water infrastructure is kaput and our guts in rebellion.
That's the drinking side. My article was a result of pissing on my hands, and then not being able to clean them. I guess i shouldda gone to West Point.
jim
avedis says:
"Next time I run out of bottled water I think I'll make my coffee with vodka."
This is as it is in the finest hotels in the former Soviet Union: After tooth-brushing, guests rinse with bottled Coke to avoid the vermin. Now that's a nice, clean finish, eh?
p.s. avedis:
I am really sorry about your water problems. Equally disturbing is life here in Tally, where the water bill insert always lauded the great water (which tastes awful), except not lately. Turns out we are 6th in the nation (out of 365 cities) for toxic Hexavalent Chromium (Erin Brockovich, anyone?).
What's the water mgr. say to this: Our water's GREAT! Wikipedia Cascades Park and you can read the whole story.
Jim, the good news is that urine is free of germs; unlike the water. And, given proper personal hygiene, Private Woody is less of a disease vector than the restroom door handle you touch on the way out. There is probably some method to Monk's madness.
Lisa, that is too bad about Tally water. Like Jim says, we spend unfathomable amounts of treasure and blood to nation build for some crazy ungrateful quasi societies on the other side of the world, but we won't do much of anything to make the basics of life better for folks right here at home. It's crazy. Why do we - the people - not agitate more about this? Have we given up hope?
My wife and I are enjoying fantasies of moving down to Ocala. The water situation there is one of the little details that I am researching.
avedis
Avedis,
Yes, please do the research. In the course of writing this, I discovered a saturation of Ethylene dibromide (alternately called EBD or EBD) which was used extensively as a scavenger for lead in gasoline and as a pesticide and an ingredient of soil, vegetable, fruit, and grain fumigant formulations.
Thousands of wells in Lake County where I grew up are tainted with this carcinogen; more are being discovered daily. Ocala is in Marion County, directly above Lake. Big horse country, but horses don't live that long anyway.
I grew up in an orange grove where spraying was a constant. EDB was banned in '83, but we'd lived there since '79. It's still contaminating wells in Lake Co.
Oh, and it's linked to M.S. in exposed Korean war vets.
p.s. -- my point about EDB is that when one sees the Florida distribution maps, it persists in a band where orange groves were treated consistently with the chemical (by poor grove workers, of course.)
They probably smoked, too. They certainly inhaled enough particulate matter when tending the smudge pots on cold nights.
Avedis and Lisa,
Ethyl bromide is still used in tomato farming right next to my homestead.
It caused cancer in the tobacco farm workers, and is a known carcinogen, but it's still in use.
Screw the ground water is the attitude here in Fl. Water management fails to address this run off in my area. And tomatoes are not cheap, in any sense of the word.
Avedis,
I'll just piss on the door knobs. Will that help?
jim
Avedis,
Why go to Ocala?
I'll lease/sell a 60 acre farm in Quincy 32351 to an unsuspecting Yankee.
My land is quite lovely.
I have a year round spring that could carry a farm. Testing would check it's purity.
If i remember correctly- didn't Reagan hurt horse operations by removing tax advantages?
jim
How much anti-freeze is in YOUR toothpaste?:
Propylene glycol is listed as one of the ingredients in Colgate. That's why I use baking soda.
AMSOIL Antifreeze and Engine Coolant
I appreciate and sympathize with your concerns about the quality of water. However, I had to smile as I read some of the postings. Having schlepped around in some "under-developed" countries (and even in a few parts of the U.S.), I brushed my teeth with Jack Daniels and carried some alcohol for handwashing. I'm not a drinker so the JD really was for "medicinal" purposes. Sorry - I couldn't resist.
Jay in N.C.
Jay,
We've all been there -done that,BUT we're supposed to be leaders of the first world.
I expect these things in the OCONUS world, but not here.
jim
POLT,
I use Tom's of Maine, but it's basically baking soda. Commercial toothpastes really irritate my mouth.
Hi Jay,
I would never question your use of the spirits in any but the most dire circumstances :)
Hi Jim! I'm the AHCA Asst. Gen Counsel you met at the Mexican restaurant who told you about the lack of soap in the br dispensers. It's a truly disgusting place. I'd put my name down but like all state employees, it's more than my job is worth. Thanks for remembering.
Anon, 7 Mar,
Now i know that i can blackmail an atty.
Thanks for visiting RAW.
jim
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