Tuesday 22 March 2016

Technically Right, Yet Still a Fail

I am not one to complain or whine, not really . . . at least I don’t think so. I get frustrated and I do vent a bit on here, but it is only to let people know what I am going through, and how I am getting through it.

Yesterday morning I had an interesting experience, from which I think we all could take a lesson. I didn’t blog about it yesterday, because yesterday’s blog needed to stand on its own.

I decided to treat myself to a real shower yesterday morning. You see, sure in this warmer weather I do clean myself with a pseudo-shower, a “Jug Shower” as I call it. 

I warm water up in kettle, pour it into a 2 litre plastic “Juice Jug” (you know the type) top it off with room temperature water and voila I have a jug of warm, yet not scolding, water. 

I stand in my bathtub/shower, pour a bit of water over my head and body to wet myself. Then I lather myself up with soap and shampoo before pouring the rest of the water over me to rinse off. 

The added fun is stepping out of the shower all wet and into the cold air of the morning where I briskly dry off and curse about the experience . . . a fun time all around, oh joy.

Every once in a while (Once a month to a month and a half) I like to treat myself to a real shower. Just to have that moment of standing under the shower and feeling the warm water cascade down you as warmth envelops you; to feel the steam and the heat penetrate sore muscles. Then to dry off in comfort and WARMTH!; A nice luxury, to be sure. 

So yesterday morning, before work I decided to do just that and pay the $13.00 for the privilege at my local truck stop. At first everything was going fine, got in the shower room, got undressed, turned the shower all the way to the hottest setting and let it run to warm up.

And waited . . . and waited . . . I managed to get it to be just off ice cold yet not quite lukewarm before I decided to brave it and just get clean, as time was ticking. 

Dealing with cold while bathing is nothing new; paying for the privilege, however, is. I scrubbed and got myself clean in record time while cursing and grumbling about the injustice of it all and the monumental letdown this experience was.

It wasn’t until I was drying off that I saw it, out of the corner of my eye I spotted the sign. It was laminated and put up at the entrance to the shower itself, but on the outside wall. In essence it said that the taps had been reversed and sorry for the inconvenience. 

This meant that the hot tap was actually the cold tap and the cold tap was the hot tap. So, to get a hot shower, you had to crank the dial to the cold (who the heck does that!) So when I cranked it up to the hot, I was turning the water directly and fully to the cold.

It wasn’t on the back wall where your eye would naturally fall on it as soon as you entered the room. Nor was it in some other conspicuous place. No, this thing was on the wall away from the shower, the very last place you will look. 

When entering the shower itself you are turning towards and focused on the shower controls. So your back will be to this sign, and unless you are paranoid (looking for cameras or assassins everywhere) or intentionally looking for it, you won’t see it. 

As I was leaving I brought this to the attention of the clerk on duty and his reply was “Nothing will stick to the back wall, so that’s the only place to put it.” Case closed, no apology, compensation or free shower was offered, the best I got was a shrug and dismissive look.  I just left; I didn’t have it in me to put up a fuss over what felt like a matter that nobody would care about. 

This brings me to the lesson of today’s blog, folks, if you do something, do it well and think it through. Sure the plumber fixed the taps but he got the taps reversed; done, yet not right. Sure the clerk put up a sign to warn people, but it was in the last place you would see; done, but useless. 

The whole point of doing something is so that it will do some sort of good, even in some small measure, so make sure that it makes sense and is done properly. What is the point of doing something that is just not right or poorly thought through? If you say to yourself (or others) “Meh, it’s done, so what?” that is a signal to go back, do it again and do a better job! 

As always, stay positive and keep moving forward!

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