Minor things that bother you

[kphoger]

Gary's concern was about having a place for the towel to dry after the shower, not to be accessible during the shower.

Ah, yes, that's right.  In that case I'd just toss it over the shower curtain bar (if a tub) or shower door (if not a tub) or whatever.  Which is less than ideal if someone else needs to use the shower too.

[JayhawkCO]

Gary's concern was about having a place for the towel to dry after the shower, not to be accessible during the shower.

Ah, yes, that's right.  In that case I'd just toss it over the shower curtain bar (if a tub) or shower door (if not a tub) or whatever.  Which is less than ideal if someone else needs to use the shower too.

Bathroom door itself is another alternative.

[formulanone]

Hotel bathrooms. Why don't they have towel bars? Especially in these days when they don't provide room cleaning and fresh linens more than once every 3 days.

I reuse my towels at home, so that's not a problem when I'm traveling. But at home I have a place for them to hang up and dry before my next shower.

I can't say as I've ever been in a hotel room without towel bar or hook.

It happens. Sometimes the hook disappears and nobody notices.

I keep a rubber wire-tie which sometimes is enough to support a towel, or just use a clothes hanger. 

[vdeane]

I find that there's usually a hook or something, but often in an inconvenient place, such that it's awkward to grab the towel after taking a shower.

[GaryV]

Hotel bathrooms. Why don't they have towel bars? Especially in these days when they don't provide room cleaning and fresh linens more than once every 3 days.

I reuse my towels at home, so that's not a problem when I'm traveling. But at home I have a place for them to hang up and dry before my next shower.

I can't say as I've ever been in a hotel room without towel bar or hook.

Yes, a hook. Maybe a robe hook on the back of the door that has 2 hooks on it, but they're so close together that neither towel can hang flat enough to dry. Now, where do you put the washcloth and hand towel that you used?

And as noted, using the shower curtain rod or the bathroom door itself leads to other problems when there is more than one person in the room. Some rooms have 2 double/queen beds meaning there's potentially 4 people sharing the bathroom.

[1995hoo]

Recently I've stayed in a couple of hotels with the swinging-door style shower where I've had a choice, while showering, of hanging the towel through the vertical handle on the outside of the door or setting the towel on the closed toilet lid. In that situation, I choose the former option.

I've stayed in at least one hotel that had that style shower and had a towel hook, but the hook was behind the door relative to where you're standing in the shower when you open the door. So the hook is useless for holding the towel while you're showering unless you want to drip water all over the floor by stepping out to get the towel (which I don't like to do).

[on_wisconsin]

Spotted spurge and Wood sorrels in the yard.

[Scott5114]

Since moving to the desert, I've gotten in the habit of standing in the shower until most of the dripping is done (since if it drips off of me in the shower, it will theoretically make its way back to Lake Mead, whereas if it ends up on my floor or the towel it won't). So I suppose that would give me more options in hotel towel placement.

[kphoger]

Since moving to the desert, I've gotten in the habit of standing in the shower until most of the dripping is done (since if it drips off of me in the shower, it will theoretically make its way back to Lake Mead, whereas if it ends up on my floor or the towel it won't).

I stand there for a little bit too (in my shower, not yours) and shake my arms and legs—just because I don't want to drip all over the place as I reach for my towel.

[JayhawkCO]

Hotel bathrooms. Why don't they have towel bars? Especially in these days when they don't provide room cleaning and fresh linens more than once every 3 days.

I reuse my towels at home, so that's not a problem when I'm traveling. But at home I have a place for them to hang up and dry before my next shower.

I can't say as I've ever been in a hotel room without towel bar or hook.

Yes, a hook. Maybe a robe hook on the back of the door that has 2 hooks on it, but they're so close together that neither towel can hang flat enough to dry. Now, where do you put the washcloth and hand towel that you used?

And as noted, using the shower curtain rod or the bathroom door itself leads to other problems when there is more than one person in the room. Some rooms have 2 double/queen beds meaning there's potentially 4 people sharing the bathroom.

I don't use a wash cloth nor hand towel in the shower, so those aren't a concern. (What do you do with a hand towel in the shower?) I use one of those little poof things when I travel.

As to the shower curtain rod, you can always just take the one towel off, put it on the counter for the duration of the shower, and then hang it back up.

The only time I'm ever going to be in a hotel room with more than one other person would be if I'm with my wife and son, so then leaving the door ajar isn't a big deal at all. For that matter, even if I were with friends, I'm pretty sure everyone can just avert eyes anyway.

[1995hoo]

Since moving to the desert, I've gotten in the habit of standing in the shower until most of the dripping is done (since if it drips off of me in the shower, it will theoretically make its way back to Lake Mead, whereas if it ends up on my floor or the towel it won't). So I suppose that would give me more options in hotel towel placement.

I don't live in the desert, but I've done that all my life; I also do some of the initial toweling off while still in the shower. My parents taught me to dry off that way when I was a kid because my father, in particular, didn't like a wet floor mat, so he didn't want us getting out of the shower without at least starting to dry off first. (Earlier this year I bought a stone floor mat for the master bathroom. It's much nicer than a fabric or rug-type one, in my opinion. My wife is less happy about it.)

[hbelkins]

All of the FD/DT combo stores in my area are still dual-branded for now.

Correction. Within the last few years, a second Family Dollar opened in Jackson, about a mile from the existing Family Dollar. While the old store remained a FD-only store (but with the in-store DT racks but without the specialized DT section in the store), the new store was co-branded FD and DT. I noticed yesterday on my way home that the DT branding was gone from the store's sign and exterior. I'll have to check to see if the DT section is gone the next time I'm in there.

[Scott5114]

(Earlier this year I bought a stone floor mat for the master bathroom. It's much nicer than a fabric or rug-type one, in my opinion. My wife is less happy about it.)

I've never seen one of these, but from what I'm imagining...it seems like it would be uncomfortable to be the first thing you step on after coming out of the shower during the winter months. It also seems like it would be easier to slip on than a fabric one.

[GaryV]

I don't use a wash cloth nor hand towel in the shower, so those aren't a concern. (What do you do with a hand towel in the shower?)

I don't use them in the shower either. But I might have washed my hands and face at the sink, in the same bathroom as the shower.

[1995hoo]

(Earlier this year I bought a stone floor mat for the master bathroom. It's much nicer than a fabric or rug-type one, in my opinion. My wife is less happy about it.)

I've never seen one of these, but from what I'm imagining...it seems like it would be uncomfortable to be the first thing you step on after coming out of the shower during the winter months. It also seems like it would be easier to slip on than a fabric one.

We haven't yet had it during the winter, so I don't know. But it's not at all slippery.

[kphoger]

(Earlier this year I bought a stone floor mat for the master bathroom. It's much nicer than a fabric or rug-type one, in my opinion. My wife is less happy about it.)

I've never seen one of these, but from what I'm imagining...it seems like it would be uncomfortable to be the first thing you step on after coming out of the shower during the winter months. It also seems like it would be easier to slip on than a fabric one.

I've never used one, but I've taken showers plenty of times in places with everything from concrete to large polished tiles.  Just as tile and cloth are the same temperature but the latter feels warmer because of its rough surface, so too are smooth stone and rough stone the same temperature but the latter feels warmer.  I've found that stepping onto concrete, for example, doesn't feel any colder—and probably even warmer—than onto the linoleum of my own bathroom.

[Scott5114]

(Earlier this year I bought a stone floor mat for the master bathroom. It's much nicer than a fabric or rug-type one, in my opinion. My wife is less happy about it.)

I've never seen one of these, but from what I'm imagining...it seems like it would be uncomfortable to be the first thing you step on after coming out of the shower during the winter months. It also seems like it would be easier to slip on than a fabric one.

I've never used one, but I've taken showers plenty of times in places with everything from concrete to large polished tiles.  Just as tile and cloth are the same temperature but the latter feels warmer because of its rough surface, so too are smooth stone and rough stone the same temperature but the latter feels warmer.  I've found that stepping onto concrete, for example, doesn't feel any colder—and probably even warmer—than onto the linoleum of my own bathroom.

That's a good point, considering how often I've burned my feet on the concrete in my backyard this summer...

Though I think with tile-vs-cloth the difference is in how well the materials conduct heat rather than the surface roughness. Most common metals, for instance, conduct heat very well, which is why they feel much colder or hotter than their actual temperature.

[kernals12]

People asking what I do for work. Saying "I read all about walnuts and write what i've learned" isn't something I'd like to brag about at parties.

[kphoger]

That's a good point, considering how often I've burned my feet on the concrete in my backyard this summer...

Though I think with tile-vs-cloth the difference is in how well the materials conduct heat rather than the surface roughness. Most common metals, for instance, conduct heat very well, which is why they feel much colder or hotter than their actual temperature.

I didn't explain that very well, and you're on the right track.

On a hot summer day in the shade, a teddy bear feels noticeably cooler to the touch than an empty drinking glass, even though they're both the same temperature.  This is primarily because the glass is much smoother, and this means that every little bit of your skin where it touches the glass is actually in contact with the molecules of the item—whereas, because of how fabric is made, a whole bunch of your skin where it touches the teddy bear is actually not making contact with the item, but rather there are a lot of air gaps between your skin and the item.  This means that heat transfer between you and the drinking glass happens noticeably faster than between you and the teddy bear:  more of your skin touching molecules of the item mean more heat being transferred in the same amount of time.  As you said, a metal cup would be an even bigger difference than glass, because it would conduct heat even better by virtue of its being made of metal.

Similarly, on a cold winter day in the shade, the teddy bear will feel warmer to the touch than the drinking glass, for the same reason.

I say 'in the shade' in order to rule out something like what you've experienced with hot pavement in the summer, which is that concrete retains heat very well, and sunlight gives it a LOT of heat to retain.  I'm guessing, though, that you haven't burnt your feet on the concrete in your backyard an hour after sunset, even if the ambient temperature was still over 90°F.  But I can say from experience that, on a hot summer day, even in direct sunlight, rough concrete doesn't burn my feet as readily as smooth concrete.

Of course, direct sunlight is not an issue on the floor of one's bathroom.  Protected from the elements, kept at a relatively steady temperature in the 60s or 70s °F, it's really not comparable to one's backyard patio.  If the stone mat is made to be non-slip, then it's probably finished in such a way that its surface is in some way rough—not necessarily uncomfortably so, but such that a significant amount of the skin on the bottoms of your feet aren't actually making contact with the molecules of the mat.  Along with making it non-slip, this will also make it feel less cold to the touch, even if it's actually the same temperature as the towel hanging on the bar nearby.

[1995hoo]

Here's a picture showing what it looks like. This is not our bathroom and not my picture (our bathroom is not that fancy-looking), but this is the same color as ours. The piece comes with a sort of rubber "mat" (not sure that's the right term) that goes underneath to keep it in place on the floor.

Wet footprints do disappear from it extremely quickly.

[kphoger]

That looks awfully small.

[1995hoo]

That looks awfully small.

23.6 inches wide by 15.6 inches deep. It is slightly smaller than some of what I would call the "towel-style" bathmats my wife sometimes uses, but it's large enough for me to stand on without getting water on the floor.

[kphoger]

23.6 inches wide by 15.6 inches deep.

That's the size of a very small hand towel.  No thanks.

[mgk920]

People who develop near terminal cases of 'Chicken Little Syndrome' over day-to-day fluctuations of completely NORMAL weather. It is a good thing that they weren't around for the summers of 1870 and 1871.  Those two summers, leading up to the great upper Great Lakes firestorms of 1871-10-08 (both in Chicago and especially Peshtigo, WI), were exceptionally HOT and DRY.  BUT they were completely normal weather.

Mike

[kphoger]

People who develop near terminal cases of 'Chicken Little Syndrome' over day-to-day fluctuations of completely NORMAL weather. It is a good thing that they weren't around for the summers of 1870 and 1871.  Those two summers, leading up to the great upper Great Lakes firestorms of 1871-10-08 (both in Chicago and especially Peshtigo, WI), were exceptionally HOT and DRY.  BUT they were completely normal weather.

And I'm tired of people at church asking, every time there's a flood or an earthquake somewhere in the world, and especially in the USA, if it's a sign that Jesus is coming back.