A Surfeit Of Bathrooms

 I felt privileged as a child, relative to my close friends. We had 2.5 bathrooms, and just 3 of us living in our house full time. My friends all had Levitt houses, with exactly ONE bathroom, and some of them were families of 7!

We had one stall shower, in my parents' bathroom, which I used all the time, and another bathroom with a bathtub/shower, which was really only used for visiting babies -- my niece and nephew, in the mid 70s.

And now? It's almost embarrassing to admit, but Wifey and I have 5.5 bathrooms for just the two of us! And yesterday the absurdity of that reached a new height.

We'll be welcoming D2 and Jonathan and the enormous dog next week, staying here until their new house is completed. They'll take D2's old bedroom, which has a new-ish queen sized bed, and adjoining bathroom.

And Wifey announced that Edna and Marc may be staying for a few days as well. We have a sort of guest house above the garage, but the bed there is an uncomfortable pull out sofa. Plus, the room always has a mustiness to it.

No problem -- we have a bedroom on the second floor, and it has a full bathroom right outside. It has a bathtub/shower, which Wifey has used as storage for the last, oh, 20 years. It occurred to me that we NEVER used that bath/shower. Sure enough, after Wifey took all the stuff out and turned the spigot -- very little water.

I figured I needed a plumber, but played with the spigot awhile, and sure enough, the water flowed. I guess it just needed to wake up. I realized the shower head was broken, though, and ordered one this am on HomeDepot.com. It should arrive this week, and even I, no Bob Villa, can install a new shower head.

But the bigger issue is how fortunate we are. Really -- 5.5 bathrooms? As the Ds always note -- the height of First World problems.

Meanwhile, Wifey spent the 4th decluttering -- making space for the coming houseguests. She has quite a bit to go -- Betsy is a very large dog and needs room.

Other than that, I spent our Nation's birthday exercising my independence to do nothing. I didn't even walk -- and somehow the day flew by.

At fireworks time, I tuned into the Macy's show from NYC, and, alas, it was pre-empted by the live news of the demolition of the remaining part of the Surfside condo. So the explosions were the height of sadness this year. Just as well.

My 60th is now less than 2 weeks away. I look forward to thanking the Big Man for those lovely 6 decades.

I'm so thankful. Particularly since I never have to wait to pee or shower.