It's 20 degrees out

 My walls have no insulation.  I'm leaving the water off.  

I had a sponge bath this morning with the "No rinse" stuff.  I remember how I felt after Ron's accident, I would watch the nurses and nurse aides, offer to help, because I would be doing all this for him when he came home.  The first time he moved to a new floor they brought him a nice warm packet of comfort bath wipes.  He loved it.  The cloths were soft and warm.  

The next time they brought in a dishpan full of soapy, tepid, water, and a handful of old wash cloths.  What happened to the comfort bath?  Oh, your insurance won't pay for that.  

(I looked it up online they were $10 a pop so I couldn't afford them either!) So Ron got a much rougher, colder, bath which he hated.  

I did bring in some wet wipes which they loved for the diaper changes and I was told they wished all the families would do this, as I assisted rolling him back and forth.  

This was so long ago they had a paper chart and I had them put a note in the front of the chart asking for training on how to care for Ron.  The nurse aide would come in for the day, shoulders squared, a gleam in her eye.  "Mrs. B" they would tell me "We're going to learn how to do TRANSFERS today!" and I would learn.  

Ron recovered to the point he could take tub baths for many years and he did that.  He loved our garden tub.  One day, though, he lost his balance getting out of the tub and smacked his head on the edge of the tub as he went down.  I still don't know how he escaped further brain damage.  As I got him up (not bleeding, either) we both agreed that was the end of the tub bath.  

But that meant I had to clean him in bed and I wasn't doing the soapy water in the dishpan.  I did some research and bought the No Rinse brand bath.  You take a gallon or so of warm water, put in a squirt (they suggest a capful but one squirt is about the same), swish it around, clean up from clean areas to dirtiest.  I use a couple of washcloths for the process.  Ron was happy.  I was happy.  He was clean and fresh.  I gave all of it away after Ron died for some reason but realized over the years I could use it again for myself, for times like today when I have to leave my water turned off.  

I did think how much that bath would have sucked without electricity to warm the water (microwave) and run the space heater in my tiny bathroom.  I wasn't dirty but this was practice and washing me is pretty much the same as washing Ron was, just a different angle.  

But I'm glad I had it.  Not much I could do about my hair but everyone at work was wearing a hat, anyway, so I'll just do that.  

That's it for now.