shower

SoCS — What’s That Smell?

Fandango16 Comments

I was pretty sick last week into the weekend. But by Monday, I woke up, took a shower, got dressed, and told my wife that I was beginning to feel a little better. This was welcome news to my wife because she wanted to make certain improvements in our backyard that had been on hold while I was under the weather, like putting up a new sun sail that had been blown apart by gale-force winds a few weeks earlier, sanding, sealing, and staining the wood swingset we have for our grandkids, and putting together a new, resin storage shed.

We shared the burden of these tasks because I do have certain limitations due to my hip replacement surgery, but we got both the sun sail and the swingset tasks done by yesterday and started this morning working on putting the storage shed together.

By around noon the temperature had reached 80°F and there was no shade where the shed was going up. So I said I needed a break and suggested that we could resume once the sun had moved enough that the shed area would be in the shade.

At around 3:00 we went back out to continue working on the shed and I smelled something kind of foul. I started sniffing around trying to find the source of the smell, and unable to pinpoint it, I said to my wife, “What’s that smell?”

Without missing a beat she said, “That’s you. I don’t think you’ve showered since Monday and you’ve been sweating a lot this week. You’re kinda ripe.”

“Yikes,” I said. “I think you’re right. Well, I’ll take one tomorrow morning for sure.”

“No,” she said. “You go take a shower now. I’m going to put clean sheets on the bed and I don’t want you stinking them up, so go shower now. Dinner will be ready by the time you’re done.”

It really felt great to take that shower! And I smell fresh as a daisy!

Written for Linda G. Hill’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt, where Linda has given us the phrase, “What’s that smell?” and asked us to write about the first thing that comes to mind. Image credit: Bing Image Creator.

Share Your World — 10/30/2023

Fandango9 Comments
Share Your World

Di, at Pensitivity101, is our host for Share Your World each week. Here are her SYW questions for today.

1. Do you have carpets, rugs, laminating flooring, tiles, or wooden floors (or something else) in your property?

We have engineered hardware in the main living areas (family room, kitchen, dining room, entryway, and hallway to the bedrooms). Our bedrooms have carpeting and our bathrooms have tile floors.

2. Do you have a bathtub and separate shower, or a combination of the two?

The main (master) bedroom has a shower and a standalone soaking tub. Another bathroom has a combo shower/tub, and a third bathroom has a shower only.

3. What is your favorite room of the house, and why?

Actually, my favorite room in the house isn’t even in the house. It’s our back deck upon which sits a pergola where I sit on one of our two swing chairs hanging from the pergola while I look out over our serene, idyllic backyard watching and listening to our waterfall. That’s where I am now as I write this post.

4. How many televisions do you have?

Two, but we only watch one, the one in the family room. The other TV is in the master bedroom but we never really watch that one.

Fandango’s Provocative Question #132

Fandango32 Comments
FPQ

Welcome once again to Fandango’s Provocative Question. Each week I will pose what I think is a provocative question for your consideration.

By provocative, I don’t mean a question that will cause annoyance or anger. Nor do I mean a question intended to arouse sexual desire or interest.

What I do mean is a question that is likely to get you to think, to be creative, and to provoke a response. Hopefully a positive response.

I recently read that the actor, Jake Gyllenhaal, is among a small but growing group of celebrities who say they rarely take daily showers or baths. “More and more,” Gyllenhaal says, “I find bathing to be less necessary.” He believes that daily bathing strips the body of its natural, healthy oils and changes the biome of the skin. Other actors, like Ashton Kutcher, Bradley Cooper, Cameron Diaz, Matthew McConaughey, and Brad Pitt, have apparently shunned daily bathing or using deodorant.

This piqued my curiosity, so I Googled daily hygiene and saw that some well respected dermatologists suggest that if you don’t have a personal, essential need, like getting dust, grime, or germs cleared off, daily bathing can actually be detrimental to your skin.

One article I came across noted that when you shower daily, you dry out your skin, especially if you are scrubbing with an abrasive material or soap. Further, you can deplete the essential oils, lipids, and bacteria that help your skin fight off inflammation, maintain a smooth look, and reinforce its protective barrier.

I’ve always showered daily, but after I told my wife what I read, she suggested, given the severe drought and water shortages we are experiencing in northern California, that it might be prudent for us consider cutting back to every other day, or even every third day to shower.

So with this in mind, my provocative question this week is this…

Do you regularly shower or bathe daily? If not, how often do you shower or bathe? If you do shower or bathe daily, is there anything that might persuade you to do so less often?

If you choose to participate, write a post with your response to the question. Once you are done, tag your post with #FPQ and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Or you can simply include a link to your post in the comments. But remember to check to confirm that your pingback or your link shows up in the comments.

MLMM Photo Challenge — Clouds in the Shower

Fandango15 Comments

“I don’t feel a thing,” Alyse said. “I thought you said this was the good stuff.”

Michael gave Alyse a questioning look. “Seriously, you don’t feel anything yet? I’m totally wasted.”

“Well maybe I’m just not in the mood,” Alyse said. “I’m tired. I’m going to go take a shower and go to bed. Have a good time sitting here by yourself watching National Geographic.”

Alyse walked into their bathroom, took off her clothes, and, after making sure the water temperature was to her liking, stepped into the shower. As she was soaping herself up, she was looking at the impression her soapy hand made on the glass shower wall. She was mesmerized, unable to look away. To Alyse, it was as if she was lying out in a field of grass, looking up at the clouds against a deep blue sky, and watching with fascination as the light breezes changed the clouds’ shapes, just as the soap bubble on the shower wall, were slowly forming and changing shapes.

“Michael, come quick!” Alyse called out.

Hearing her calling him, Michael ran into the bathroom. “Alyse, are you okay? Did something happen?”

Alyse was singing a slightly off-key rendition of Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now,” standing in the shower with her hand rubbing the shower wall glass. “Look, Michael,” she said, “look at the clouds floating by.”

Michael starting laughing. “So are you still going to tell me again how you don’t feel anything yet?”

Written for the Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie Photo Challenge. Photo credit: Marta Bevacqua

Of Bubbles and Baths

Fandango14 Comments

I was sitting on the sofa in the family room when my wife, wearing a short terry cloth robe, approached me in a very sensual manner and, in a warm, sultry voice said to me, “Hey, lover, I’m in the mood for a bubble bath. Would you care to join me?”

I looked up at her from my iPhone, on which I was playing solitaire, and said, “No thanks, babe. I prefer showers over baths.”

My wife looked at me, saw what I was doing on my iPhone, and said, “I see.” Her voice shifted from warm and sultry to cold and nasty. “Well, solitaire is a good game for you to be playing, you bastard, because, as far as I’m concerned, you’re going to be spending a lot of time from now on in solitary confinement. I hope you enjoy playing with yourself.”

Written for Paula Light’s Thursday Inspiration prompt, where the theme is “bath,” and for the Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie Tale Weaver prompt, where the topic is “bubbles,”