The Water Got Her

One acclimates to consistent phenomena. After a good while, I've gotten used to the hot water in my apartment and how it works. It takes a good, long time to come. You start it up when you get to thinking you might want some hot water. Several minutes later, there it is. Make no mistake, it gets good and hot. You'll burn yourself for sure, but it doesn't sneak up on you. The shower's better, maybe because it's a greater volume of water spurring on the heater.

There's this restaurant in Hollywood that I am in the habit of frequenting sometimes. Stars go there, but that's not a leading motivator. The food is solid, the service is competent and the prices are fair. I've written about the place in good times and bad. After a long absence, I was back the other night, and maybe I've forgotten some of its ways. It can be like that with some things, whereas others don't ever let you forget.

I had to use the restroom at one point. I just wanted to wash my hands. I squirted some soap out of the dispenser. I guess that I may have hit it too hard, as the soap got not just on my hands but in my eyes. This is always how one mistake turns into several. You have to slow down and start being very deliberate, or else worse things happen, as they did with me on this occasion. I got some water on my hands so that I could go after the rogue soap.

The water was lukewarm at this time, and I got the soap out of my eyes. It had taken a second or too. I went back for some more, warmer water. It was now already hot enough to extract from me a good yelp. I hurt, but I also was just stunned at how fast it had gotten scalding, that water. I'm not a litigious type. I consider lawsuits such as this would be unproductive and immoral. They're fortunate then at that restaurant that they don't have to deal with such a nuisance, because that was not pleasant.