2002-12-27 - 9:01 a.m.
HOT WATER
F. Scott Fitzgerald supposedly once said, most likely to Ernest Hemingway, that the rich are not like you and me. Hemingway�s retort reportedly was that the rich had more money. I always thought that Hemingway had the better part of that discussion. But the hot water incident has me wondering.
We spent the last few days visiting Mr. Philately�s brother. Mr. Philately�s brother probably thinks of himself as upper middle class. His house belies him. When we first saw it, Mr. Philately, who can make a hobby out of absolutely anything, announced that he had a goal. No, it was not to acquire a house as big. It was not even to acquire as many bathrooms. The goal was more modest. He wanted to acquire experiences. He wanted to use all of the bathrooms in a single day.
But my brother-in-law doesn�t have servants so his house is something like mine and his life is something like mine�or so I thought. Yes, he has more and bigger televisions. Yes, he has more computers and some closets that are larger than Day-Hay�s bedroom. Yes, he has multiple fireplaces. But his house still needs cleaning and maintenance and he and his wife do much of that themselves just as I do.
Still, the hot water incident shows a fundamental difference in our thinking. On Wednesday, I woke up and went into the shower. Hot water did not come on right away but I did not think anything of it. I was in an upstairs bathroom and sometimes water in pipes gets cold when the air outside is so cold. I waited a bit. The water was still icy.
It was Christmas morning in a house that had multiple teens and almost teens. I was not sure who was up before me. I was not sure how many showers had been taken. I was not sure whether someone threw in a load of laundry or ran the dishwasher, especially as I did not remember either my sister-in-law or I running it the night before. I sighed and, just as I would have done under such circumstances in my own house, I took a brisk shower (although I decided to wait until later to wash my hair.)
At home, I have what I consider a luxurious amount of hot water. When the hot water heater died, we replaced it with a 50-gallon model. The 50-gallon model was only $10 more than the 40-gallon model and most of the cost was the labor, which was the same for both models. I figured that someday, when both girls were teenagers, I would be glad I splurged. Generally, I don�t run out of hot water at home but occasionally, it happens. Sometimes the problem is that our plumbing is hooked up so that the kitchen faucet or anything in the girls� bathroom will draw hot water away from my bathroom. Sometimes the problem is too many showers or loads of laundry in too short a time. Nevertheless, cold showers, while infrequent, are not unheard of.
I�ve also taken cold showers at other people�s homes before. Cold showers happen, especially when a lot of visitors with teenagers are staying overnight. Cold showers are unfortunate but I would never say anything unless I saw someone headed to the bathroom immediately after my cold shower. In that event, I would suggest that the person wait for the water heater to catch up with demand. Saying something in any other circumstance would seem like whining, or worse, being a malcontented, picky guest.
So I said nothing once I realized that everyone was coming straight downstairs to open presents without taking time for showers. I didn�t even think about it again once I got over the shock of the cold. I didn�t say a word when someone commented that I had managed to shower.
After the presents were opened, the teenagers began to shower. They were not as reticent but then, for most of them, the house was their own. Besides, most of them knew something I did not know: the house has a 250-gallon hot water heater. The house has never run out of hot water and something had to be wrong. (The something wrong turned out to be someone having thrown a circuit breaker to fix something and not having realized that the hot water heater had to be restarted.)
Then, the interrogation began. Why didn�t I tell him about the cold shower? Why didn�t I realize that something had to be wrong? Why didn�t I know that a house that size would have a similarly-sized hot water heater? How did I insult him that way?
Only with the rich would I have been in hot water because of a cold shower.
LAST YEAR: No entry because we were out of town
LAST FIVE ENTRIES:
Chapter Summaries
Driving Distractions
Take a Number
Cooking Day
I�m Tired
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Copyright 2006 by Ellen |
