Hurrah for Water Pressure!

I’m a good girl.

Of course, every time I say or hear that phrase, I remember my daddy. Anyone who has read this blog for longer than, say, two months, knows I adored my daddy and he seconded that emotion.

One of my most prominent memories is of the summer when my boys were, I believe, two-and-a-half and one. That would have been 1976. My daddy had a lake house out near the back entrance to Walt Disney World where he would go from Saturday noon to Sunday night to fish and relax. The house sat on two lakefront acres and had lots of grass that had to be mowed regularly. That summer he was having heart problems again and couldn’t go out there every weekend. TJ and Tyler’s dad was working at WDW as an entertainment supervisor. Every Saturday morning we would pack up all the accoutrements two toddlers require and head out to the lake, 45 miles away, for the weekend.

On Saturday afternoon I would crank up the riding mower and mow the grass, which would involve about 45 minutes of riding around in the sun, heat and humidity. The result for me, every week, would be a screaming headache. As I sat on that mower, riding, turning, riding, I imagined my daddy whispering in my ear, “You’re a good girl.” He was one of only two people in the first 46 years of my life who made me feel I had any worth. To this day, when things are hard and I take steps to ease them, I hear daddy telling me I’m a good girl and tears come to my eyes. He was one of a kind and died way too early.

So why am I a good girl today? I was in the gym at 7:45 this morning. I walked a mile, then headed for the showers.

You will remember that since February 28, I’ve been showering in an 80-year-old shower. That shower is fed by 80-year-old pipes filled with 80 years of crud. And the shower head has all sorts of build-up inside, such that the water that falls on my head is more than a trickle but far less than a waterfall. Washing my hair, which I do every morning, takes a long time, even though I don’t have much hair (fine, thin, short).

I stepped into the shower at the gym without having to wait three minutes for the hot water to arrive, and was almost knocked down by the water flow. Oh My Gosh. Just my morning shower at the gym will make getting up and racing out of the house worth the effort!

I like ending each day knowing I’ve accomplished something. Today I walked into the office knowing I had already accomplished something with that mile walk and happy shower.