Take a Bath

Our bathtub has been broken since the heat of the summer. It’s currently snowing outside, so that should give you an idea as to how long it’s been. The previous owner installed the tub all kinds of wrong, so it’s cracking in several different places. Kristian put in a temporary patch, so we can still take showers, but I haven’t been able to use the tub since August. I could technically take a bath in it, but we have this crazy notion that we should avoid causing any more water damage.

At the hospital, they told me that hot baths would help speed up my recovery and I just laughed at them and explained the tub situation. So they gave me a sitz bath to use. And, let me tell you, a sitz bath is pretty much the exact opposite of relaxing. Good for healing, yes. A fun experience, hells no. I would set a timer for 15 minutes (the length of time that they told me to use it) and I almost never made it that long. I finally gave up on it completely.

Every now and then, I’ve been going over to my Mom’s house and using her bathtub. My friends, it is truly glorious. She has an old claw-foot tub and I fill that thing to the brim with scalding hot water and I just melt into it. Some of my relaxation might come from the fact that my Mom watches my squirmy baby in an entirely different part of the house, but a good chunk of it is from that delightful, delightful tub. I brought over my own lavender bubble bath and my Mom provides fluffy towels and the occasional vase of flowers. It’s like going to a spa, if a spa provided babysitting services.

I usually read some book from my childhood that’s still on the bookshelves there, but today I brought a back issue of Runners World and I read about half of it. Reading magazines in the tub has to be one of my favorite ways to relax of all time. I left the second half of my magazine for next time. Because my baby was screaming and, let’s face it, Runners World is pretty much the same every month. At this point, I could read Cat Fancy and I would find some measure of enjoyment in it.

The only problem with my bath habit? I think it’s addictive. I find myself thinking, “I could really go for a bath right now.” Especially now with the weather getting so cold.

The saga of our own bathtub is long and depressing, but the short version is that it got installed without a pad underneath it to provide (necessary, so very necessary) support. So the whole shebang is pretty much structurally unsound. Kristian has done what he can to fix the underlying issue (I believe that it’s now being propped up with shims and foam insulation, possibly with the help of some chewing gum and a paperclip), but we’re eventually going to be forced to bite the bullet and replace the whole tub. Which will probably mean redoing that entire bathroom, because who knows what other problems will be revealed when the tub comes out.

And we just had a baby and an entire floor of our house is only partially finished in terms of walls and floorboards, so you know the bathroom is a fairly low priority as long as it continues to sortof kindof maybe function.

I guess what I’m saying is this: Mom, expect me to continue showing up to take advantage of your bathtub. No flowers necessary. Although, at some point, we are going to need to come up with a working solution. Because I’ve been bathing the baby in a bucket and she’s starting to get too big for it.

I think we’re going to need a bigger bucket. I wonder if I can get one in my size…