[at-l] Pippin's Bath Song -- do you remember it?

[Tom McGinnis]

    Sing hey! for the bath at close of day 
    that washes the weary mud away! 
    A loon is he that will not sing: 
    O! Water Hot is a noble thing! 

    O! Sweet is the sound of falling rain, 
    and the brook that leaps from hill to plain; 
    but better than rain or rippling streams 
    is Water Hot that smokes and steams. 

    O! Water cold we may pour at need 
    down a thirsty throat and be glad indeed; 
    but better is Beer if drink we lack, 
    and Water Hot poured down the back. 

    O! Water is fair that leaps on high 
    in a fountain white beneath the sky; 
    but never did fountain sound so sweet 
    as splashing Hot Water with my feet! 

Remember that? In the early phases of the Fellowship Of The Ring (Wikipedia just told me)..... Frodo, Pippen, Merry and Sam are ... somewhere -- I didn't commit it to memory. But the essence of the message remains, well, very hiker, don't you think?

Well, having been without hot H2O for the last 6 weeks, having trotted across to the neighbors, having boiled water on the stove for pot-baths, having blah-blah-blah..... having blown myself up, having stressed about my century-old plumbing, having reacquainted myself with the wonders of wrenching on galvanized pipes, I am now SO pleased to announce that I am about to shower in my own house. No small wonder, miracle, and blessing.

The arm is healed, the beard/facial hair is about recovered, FREECYCLE folks are on their way to pick up the old one, NO LEAKING PIPES on the ancient, justly maligned plumbing -- a miracle by itself... AND I didn't cook myself again. (Way good on that one -- the stench from the first one hung in the air for *days* -- and in my skin for longer than that. PHEW!)

I'll tell ya, today is a good day.