Shower

2008-03-11 22:51:37.000 – Ryan Buckley,  Summit Intern

NULL

The feeling of showering, after 8 days up at the observatory, may be one of those things that is better described in words than in a picture. It is Tuesday night and all that I can think about is the sound of water falling from a shower-head and gushing onto the floor of the bath tub in 15 long streams, each a 1/16th inch in diameter. I lift my foot over the lip of the shower and instantly feel the hot water on the bottom of my feet. I wait a second to acclimate to the tremendous heat that I have set the water temperature at. Then I swing the other foot over the lip and lean forward allowing the water to run down the back of my neck. That is the moment of complete relaxation. The shower lasts a good fifteen minutes which seems like an eternity in comparison to the previous eight days when water is not left on for more than fifteen seconds. Then the cotton clothing goes on as if to be insubordinate to the mountain (cotton kills in the mountains and it is one of the laws of survival), like a child would be to his father when the father is not around to scold. I head back down stairs, watch a few hours of TV with a hot bowl of soup in hand my Nana had made for me to eat. Until then, I can only dream.

Ryan Buckley,  Summit Intern