Sorry... but I am insane. Oh yea... so are you! You think not? Really...
Paul said in Romans "the things that I want to do I do not do and the things that I do not want to do, I do them anyway". Yep, he was a nut too. Of course, Paul was talking about sin, but isn't waste a sin? Think about the last time you washed your hands. If you are like me you turned on the water, soaped up, rinsed, and dried - right? You have heard the news this last year that you need to wash with soap and HOT water for 20 seconds -- abcdefg hijklmnop qrs tuv wx y and z. Now I know my abc's would you like to sing with me? Go ahead and sing it... Do you wash for that long? I know I don't. However... what about HOT? In a public restroom that has any traffic it is likely that when you turn on the hot spigot you actually get hot water. That does not happen at my house 90% of the time. If I let the water run long enough to get HOT I would be rinsing many, many gallons of good water down the drain. The same thing is true if you want COLD. It is all lukewarm. (Watch out Laodicea! Rev. 3:18 says you are lukewarm and will be spit out! They brougth water from hot and cold springs into Laodicea via aquaducts, but by the time the water got there it was all lukewarm! When will we ever learn?)
So, what do I do? Well, I don't want cold water, so I turn on a mix. That is really handy with the new single knob faucets that most of us have - just lift or pull right to the middle. Even if I am at a sink with 2 knobs, I usually turn on both of them. Now be honest... don't you? See... like I said, you are insane. You do that over and over expecting a different result - HOT water. You do not get it, except maybe 10% of the time... or if you are wlling to wait... which you aren't.
Like I said, I hate being insane. But, I really hate being dumb!!! Why is this dumb? It is because every time you turn on the hot spigot whether with the cold or not, hot water flows into the pipes. It just does not get far enough to reach your spigot. What do you think happens to all of the hot water? Correct. It cools off in the pipe. In the Summer it is helping to heat your home... duh... I would like to think in the Winter it does help to heat my home, but not very much. So basically, it is going to waist. One of the biggest users of energy in our homes, pumping wasted heat into the environment. Dumb!
You can help this by making plumbing runs as short as possible. In my house, most of the bathrooms are "stacked". That only helps a little and the kitchen which is a huge user of hot water is very far from the water heater. Another approach is to have a small under sink heater right where you need it. We have a hot water spigot that is separate from our main water line for hot drinks and soup, but you would not want to use that for washing your hands! We do use it for spot cleaning things and for mixing with lukewarm tap water for some washing of dishes. There are some units that heat the regular tap water... but I do not have that.
Really, just give up on washing your hands with hot water. Just use the lukewarm. NO! Do not turn on the hot! Just the cold - push that knob over to the cold side. It will not be cold - ya know?
Now I am smart... well... maybe not. I have been thinking about this pretty seriously for over 2 weeks and ya know what? I still pull to the middle! It is such a habbit that I have not been able to change! I hate being DUMB... I am insane... "Oh reched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death" (Romans 7)
I admit, I only wash my hands for the nice smell of soap... it makes me feel cleaner (though I absolutely know that it's not true).
ReplyDeleteIf we all had solar heated water, then it wouldn't really matter so much...
Sheep. We are sheep. dumb silly sheep. You nailed it on the head with this one. Great post, I was smiling by the end of it because I can totally relate to what you were saying
ReplyDeleteI also agree that the washing hands thing has a lot of funky things associated with it. you didn't even mention how much money you spend heating water that you never get to use because it cools in your pipes. What sums of money have we wasted.
To add one to the mix, how about the problem of anti-bacterial soaps causing resistant strains, or how about notion that our environments and our hands have gotten so sterile that our bodies get bored, start attacking everything, and we get allergies? Maybe the solution is to never wash your hands. Just kidding. but it makes you think.