this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2024
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The best ones are thoughts that many people can relate to and they find something funny or interesting in regular stuff.

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My city is in the middle of the worst drought in recorded history. My showers are typically under 2 minutes and I have to shower with a bucket to catch otherwise wasted water to use to flush the toilet. I also shut the water down when I am wet enough so I can scrub myself without having unneeded water flowing then start it back up to rinse.

Plus, water is damn expensive!

Who here really has the time to stand, think and waste in the shower?

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[–] [email protected] 56 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (3 children)

Well I live in a rainy part of the UK, and we basically had rain all month, so longer showers are probably more likely helping avoid the reservoir flooding over here

I guess the one upside to this situation is our water isn't even metered, we just pay a flat rate every quarter

[–] [email protected] 38 points 4 months ago (2 children)

a rainy part of the UK

Well that's a bit redundant, isn't it?

[–] [email protected] 18 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago (2 children)
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[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago

Okay, fine, rainier part

[–] [email protected] 26 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I live in the wettest region of south west australia nearby the historically coldest, wettest town in the state. We normally get 9 wet months a year but we're are half way through the season and so far only had 1.5 wet months.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 4 months ago

Clime change deniers: this is fine

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 34 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Who here really has the time to stand, think and waste in the shower?

People not in a drought. It's been quite wet here in Switzerland recently :-D

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I believe you're looking for thoughtsaboutshowers.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago (1 children)

But.. Thoughts about showers aren't also shower thoughts?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Only if they happen in the shower, and there's no way you had time to think about all that during a drought.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I don't use a shower, rather, I have a bucket (or two) of water and a dipper. I can ruminate and think about things while giving myself a thorough scrubbing, and not consume any water.

I can take as much time as I need (much to the irritation of people I live with) without consuming any more water.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

The Reassurance Bucket thoughts.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

And then he bucketed all over the place

[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 months ago

To absolutely minimise the water usage you could do a more old school "shower" by just putting some water in a bucket with a sponge.

  1. Put some water on your body with a quick sponge rinse.
  2. Apply soap.
  3. Use sponge to rinse off soap.

Then later use the bucket as toilet refill.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 months ago (9 children)

All of our dams are at 100% and overflowing, if anything we need to use more water to reduce overflowing

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

We've been getting tons of rain here, but we are still in an outdoor water ban.

Between 8-5, no lawn watering (except golf courses and businesses), no washing your car (except at a car wash), no watering your ornamental plants (except for farms and garden stores). No filling your pool (even a kiddie pool) or running through the sprinkler (except at the water park).

It's not because of drought, but because one of our water sources is offline due to elevated PFAS, so they are blending water from other reservoirs, and those sources combined can't make up the extra demand.

And also protecting businesses by making sure we can't wash our own cars or lollygag through our own sprinklers. Gotta pay for that privilege.

We have to pay...for the privilege...of lollygagging through our sprinklers.

I get the lawn part. I hate lawns. But my yard is also a barren mud pit. I gotta put something down. Trying for mostly clover and other plants that don't need a ton of water, but they still need to stay moist to germinate and start off, and that's real tough to do if you can't water it during the hottest parts of the day. I don't really care what grows as long as it holds the dirt together and it's comfortable to walk on barefoot.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago (1 children)

depends on region. my region has enough water. still, most people try to not waste it. water has to be treated before it goes back into nature and people understand it helps to minimize this process.

but it's more about the routine anyway. you get used to the movements you make in the shower, so the brain starts to trail off. doesn't mean you just stop moving and think. that usually only happens when you're traumatized or so.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Is it not normal to have a period of complete motionlessness in the shower?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

Sometimes i'll do this in the winter. We try to minimize heat/AC energy usage, and i get cold easily, so once i'm in the nice warm shower it takes a minute to work up the courage to make the mad dash to get my clothes back on lol

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Bro, I freaking feel you, I am in the same situation as yours, it has been better these days, thanks to a fucking cyclone lol (Alberto).

We literally had no water for 2 weeks, and the longest I remember to be without water since I have memory is no more than a day or two.

Lots of blocks were waterless and my dad (and many other persons) started to hunt for water in regions where they had (water was disgusting and with very low pressure though), so it was normal to watch lots of vehicles with "Rotoplas" attached to them, very very Mad Max like.

I fucking laugh when I read people recommending a bidet instead of toilet paper all around here on Lemmy or Reddit, like dude, I was taking a fucking shower for two weeks (I know this might sound like rookie numbers in some other places) with a freaking Carl's Jr plastic glass of "The Batman" movie LMAO (Batman to the rescue), also with not so good quality water too, I'd rather keep with toilet paper and wipes.

Nowadays the city is kinda flooded thanks to the storm, and the lagoons have gained some of the level they lost (they were almost dry) which is kinda dystopic to me to have these extreme changes in a matter of several weeks (talking about climate change huh).

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Damn, it sounds like your area needs some good reservoirs.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago (2 children)

If you enjoyed it, is it really wasted?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

As it turns out, yes

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

I can get behind this, I often count little things that cost and justify it by expenditure on entertainment.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago (1 children)

So, when you take a shower, all you think is "scrub, scrub, scrub, scrub, rinse, rinse, rinse, rinse"?

When I shower, it's all pretty automatic and muscle memory kinds of actions. My mind wanders all over the place, usually while listening to music /podcasts /audio books, but rarely do I think about the actual act of bathing.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago (2 children)

To be honest, most of my shower thoughts are actually "shitting on the toilet" thoughts.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago (6 children)

My city has more water than we can ever use, so I'm going to continue having shower thoughts, tyvm.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago (4 children)

Are you limited to either having a thought or moving your body at any given time? I hope you don't drive cars or perform other activities that require more than zero thoughts at once.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

I just had a shower and while I was in there I was thinking about how I could become more like you. Could you give me some advice please?

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago (6 children)

My water comes from a hole in the backyard and it's free.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

In my city the water comes from underground too. The problem arises when there is no rain and cleared land produces more runoff than absorbtion.

Coupled with heavy use by people ground water levels are reduced. This not only affects us but trees and plants that rely on these water levels will die off.

However, as the other commenter mentioned, normal citizen use and its affect on this is negligible. It's when you have industrial water extraction that is the real problem.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (3 children)

I did the math for Socal the last major drought, and normal people using water was like 2-5% of the water usage. And that includes lawns and stuff. Farming was the vast majority of water usage.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago (4 children)

I'm blessed in this regard by living in the rainiest city in Europe. It has it's downsides, but hey... free water.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago (2 children)

My city is nestled between a rain forrest and lots of natural springs. If we put our water through the normal cleaning process it would come out dirtier then it went it. We also have a few damned lakes we are having to release water from because we got so much damned rain this past winter.

We have a flat rate we pay for water, sewage, recycling, and garbage pickup and are only charged more if we use a certain amount of water. Mostly just people who water their yard or have a personal pool have to pay the higher fee.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 months ago (1 children)

You might want to consider a priest for the damned lakes (which were presumably corrupted by the damned rain?)

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Depends on the definition of "wasting"

There's always a way to spend less water, even less than you currently do.

But normally spending more water translates to comfort, as well as better washing.

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