Conserving in Spurts

Today I decided to save the planet by taking a shorter shower. My legs needed a shave, so that presented an additional shower timing issue, but I persevered.

In my shower, I have a thingy connected to my shower head to which I can attach a spray doohickey so I can successfully and easily clean my shower when I get the urge. I had the bright idea to use it in my ecological quest. So, I hooked up the external sprayer and got started.

I turned on the water and sprayed down my legs in preparation for the razor. The sprayer stops the flow of water when I ease off the trigger, so I could keep the water on, yet off at the same time (this gets a little complicated). So I hosed, shaved, hosed off, shaved some more, hosed some more. At first the water was cold, since I didn't let it warm up (thus saving countless gallons), but my legs are tough and could take it.

Once my legs were smooth enough for my liking, I decided this was a good technique and decided to wash my hair. So, I wet down my hair and shampooed. Being successful in that arena, I went ahead with the conditioning portion of my routine. It was sort of weird, shampooing and conditioning in a shower with technically no running water, but I was temporarily an Earth Mother, so all was well.

Of course, it did begin to get a little drafty, since parts of my body were wet and wet turns to cold when there is no additional water beating down to conserve body temperature, but I kept true to my quest.

After the conditioning phase of my regimen, I decided it was time for the actual showering portion - you know, soaping the body for cleanliness. I decided I was due (and deserving) of a full shower at this point, so I turned off the water from the real faucet, unhooked the shower doohickey, and turned on the shower, fully intending to relish the few seconds of shower I would get to experience.

Unfortunately, due to my middle-age brain activity, I forgot to turn the water all the way to hot and enjoyed a few seconds of bracing cold water until it registered to turn the faucet a little more until the actual hot water flooded the pipes. A minute or two later, I turned off the water. I'm still not sure what got bathed, shampooed, shaved, or conditioned - and I ended up putting my underwear on backwards. But I am confident that I had single-handedly saved enough water ... so maybe I can soak in the tub later this week.