Off the Mark by Mark Parisi for September 20, 2022

So true!

So when it’s raining on you, it’s cold?

It makes a big difference if you start at the bottom or at the top.

Showering is an Isenthalpic process.

Go figure.

Obviously that’s because Ninja Sloth put a giant block of ice into your water tank before you could know what’s happening.

George: “I WAS IN THE POOL!!!” …(reliving a Seinfeld moment)

The water in the pool doesn’t seem as cold as long as you stay in the pool. In the shower, your skin is exposed to the air at the same time.

When I was a kid we’d go down to the beach on a nice warm day in April and go swimming. Water temperature off Long Island at that time of year was maybe in the 50s. Time of useful consciousness before hypothermia sets in is about an hour for an adult. Our bodies were less than half adult size.

We’d come out shivering, with numb extremities and blue lips, lay down in the sun and thaw out and go back in!

I didn’t say we were smart kids.

Thermal shock. Dive in and get it over with. Out of shower, in to flannel pajamas and thick bathrobe. Hot chocolate with Peppermint Schnapps to warm you inside.

Much like how, to my wife at least, 70 degrees in April is melting and 70 degrees in September is freezing.

I notice the hair care products in the shower…must belong to his wife.

Context is all

Perspective….

it’s definitely a “relative” thing… in March 55º is SUMMER! …in September it’s FREEZING!

That’s how I am. Though when it’s hot and humid, I don’t make my showers quite as hot as I like them in the winter.

It’s funny – I can dive into cold water and it’s fine, but a shower of even mildly ‘less than warm’ water on my back is intensely uncomfortable…

Yep, it’s all about context. I remember one simple science experiment teaching kids not to trust their own perceptions too much. Take 3 bowls of water — one hot, one warm, and one cold. Put one hand in the cold bowl and one in the hot bowl, and hold them for a count of 10. Then, take both hands out and put them in the warm bowl. Your hands are sending two different messages to your brain about the temp of the water in that bowl. So, which one’s correct?

That’s because the pool has a certain yellow warming agent added.