Hiddenhearth
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- May 16, 2001
Somewhere I have heard that time is not fair. Certainly it was true for yours truly and my DZW. But blame it on the anticipation of this hour, if I may, that time got so distorted, for it was maybe not so long an eternity that we stood at the glass door to the steam room, waiting, watching, waiting for some fog to appear, while behind us the faucet went drip, drip, drip.
And in the meanwhile, with lack of patience, I pushed the button for steam - again and again and again.
I, like Mickey, left to his chores, with the Sorcerer gone from the premises - I, not knowing what I was doing, not knowing how to control the power I was unleashing, I was conjuring up far more buckets of steam than our magical room could hold.
Our goddess - like the Sorcerer with Mickey - should never have left me alone to my devices.
For, just like that, water start flowing out the shower faucet! And then a cloud of steam billowed in the steam room!
Not only was it a shower of water coming out the faucet - it was a warm shower, to boot!
As DW and I then took our turns in this shower, mudding off, the fog in the other room got thicker and thicker. But this yours truly Mickey was not satisfied. He got carried away with his new-found powers and he continued to push the steam button, over and over, drawing for more, more, more buckets of steam!
We entered the steam room, now toasty warm. DW sat in one alcove and mischievous Mickey in another. The steam and the heat was divine. It got warmer. Then hotter. And hotter. And hotter.
Soon DW and Mickey lost each other in the fog. It got so thick, in fact, that Mickey could not even see the paw on his out-stretched arm.
"It's getting kind of hot, dear," DW says, from somewhere in the room.
There are two buttons on the side of each of these three alcoves. (Still I wondered what combination of three might be doing this adventure together...) One button was for a mist to be sprayed from various nozzles on the side of these alcoves, and one button was for a shower from overhead. Cold water, now, would have been nice.
Water would have been nice.
That's right: once again, faucets with no water. My powers were waning!
DW says through the fog, "I guess these faucets don't work either."
I push each button again and again. I try holding each button in. But no relief comes. No water at all. Not from the overhead faucet, not from the side jets.
"Whatever you do -" the voice of DW says from the distance, "do not push that steam button again."
This impish Mickey began to wonder if he'd already over-done it with the steam button. It was getting rather hot.
A little bit later her voice comments, "I don't know how much longer I can stand this heat."
On the side of each of these alcoves was also a faucet, a simple garden faucet, with a piece of garden hose attached. These hoses were cut off, at about two or three feet in length. Lo and behold, by turning this garden faucet, a solid stream of icy-cold water came pouring out the cut-off end of hose!
In non-elegant fashion I held the cut-off end of hose over my head and let the cold water pour down all over me. Oh relief! Like jumping in a mountain stream on a hot summer's day.
"Try the hose on the side," I call to DW through the fog.
She does not answer, but I hear the sound of flowing water. It flows and splashes for awhile. Still she does not speak.
It's not long before I'm hot again. I pour more water upon my head.
Minutes later comes the sound of the door opening. DW must be leaving. Surely we were still only two in this place.
I say, "Are you going somewhere?"
Her voice answers, "It's getting kind of hot." Then it says, "I'm going to try some of those lotions." Then clunk, the door closes.
Well it was getting really quite hot. I mean burning hot. Determined to stay in the room, I had to nearly keep the hose running constant upon my head.
I don't suppose there's any way to stop this steam, I wondered to myself. It just kept flowing and flowing.
And after a while, I, too, left the steam room. The outer room was clear. DW was at the table. As I closed the door behind me, she says, "Don't push that steam button again."
DW picks up the tubes and bottles, one at a time, looking at each one, quizzically. She comments, "I wish that attendant had told us what these lotions were for." She adds, "Wish I'd brought my reading glasses," and then, after a pause, laughs at the absurdity of her thought.
I didn't really care what all these products were. I mean, all those lotions and things - they're girl stuff, anyways - aren't they?
She opens the cap to each lotion, one after another, trying this one and that one, on different parts of her skin.
"Oooh, try this," she says, handing me one tube.
I did. It looked like sparkly, greenish toothpaste-gel. It was kind of cool. I mean - literally - cool. It was weird how refreshingly cool it was.
I smeared it all over my body. Me now all in green.
It was so cool, in fact, that it gave me shivers. So, it was back into the steam room, for me, to warm up. Most remarkably, as hot as that steam room still was - my skin remained cool! It was so strange a sensation. It was totally backwards from the way I cook, that is, whenever I cook food, which isn't too often, DW will attest. But when I do cook, like on the grill, the meat is usually burnt on the outside and frozen on the inside.
Not this Mickey piece of meat. My skin was cold while my insides were hot. So odd a feeling.
When I heard the glass door open, I said aloud, "You've got to try this green stuff. It's really weird. I'm hot but my skin is cold."
And her voice replies, "Yeah I know. But I've tried this other stuff. I don't know what it is or what it's for, but it feels good."
Mischievous Mickey finally behaved. I did not push the steam button again. So, with the steam diminishing, along with the green stuff, coupled with the occasional garden hose over the head - the room remained bearable.
If we'd brought anything into our surreal experience in this holodeck room - besides reading glasses - it would have been watches. After probably what was about fifteen minutes, I worried about the end of the hour approaching. The last thing this modest Mickey and DW Minnie wanted was to have goddess reappear to see us still dressed in different muds or green gels or whatever else - and time not being fair, as it may or may not be - we erred on the side of preparedness, showering once again, and towelling off - way early - and then stood there waiting, almost at attention, like good girl and boy that we were, back into our respectable bathing suits - waiting for the goddess knock-on-the-door.
When the knock finally came, we loudly said to the door, Yes! Okay!, and then as if we needed the knock to leave, we waited no further and left the holodeck room, coming out into the real world, out into the empty passageway, no goddess in sight.
After DW and DYT had changed back into our street clothes (cruise clothes?), we found Goddess at the reception counter, along with another goddess. We dutifully returned our white robes to the goddesses.
They smiled, thanked us, asked if everything was fine.
Not that I really cared at that point what had happened to us during the holodeck experience - but - since they asked - I smiled and replied, "It was great. Wonderful. The shower didn't work. At least not for awhile."
Goddess tilted her head, not understanding.
"Doesn't that...sometimes happen?," I ask.
She tilted her head a little the other way. The other goddess asks, "The shower didn't work?"
"Yes. No. I mean not for awhile. There was no water at first but after a bit of a wait it came on."
"Hmm," goddess #2 replies with the slightest, quizzical frown.
There didn't seem to be anything for any one of us to say at that moment, and so, for a few moments, we just smiled. All four of us smiled. I smiled. DW smiled. Goddess smiled. #2 smiled.
Yes. Well.
I was about to turn and further my exploration about the ship, when #2 pipes up and adds, "That sometimes happens," as if she suddenly recalled the explanation.
"Excuse me?" I say.
"That sometimes happens," she repeated.
Now I give the quizzical look.
She continues, "That happens in port - when we leave port - when they fill the pool up - we don't get any water up here -..."
Jack Benny would have been proud of my imitation of his long, blank into-the-camera look.
No water in the spa when they fill the pool...
Okay.
Did it matter at this point?
Nah.
"We're sorry for the inconvenience," says goddess.
"Oh...no problem," I reply.
She asks, "Would you like to go to the Rain Forest?" My eyebrows go up. She says, "May I offer you a pass to the Rain Forest?"
Oh yes yes yes, you certainly may.
And as we left the spa - the pass to the Rain Forest clutched in my mitt and a smile on my face - I thought to myself, Oh how life is good!
And in the meanwhile, with lack of patience, I pushed the button for steam - again and again and again.
I, like Mickey, left to his chores, with the Sorcerer gone from the premises - I, not knowing what I was doing, not knowing how to control the power I was unleashing, I was conjuring up far more buckets of steam than our magical room could hold.
Our goddess - like the Sorcerer with Mickey - should never have left me alone to my devices.
For, just like that, water start flowing out the shower faucet! And then a cloud of steam billowed in the steam room!
Not only was it a shower of water coming out the faucet - it was a warm shower, to boot!
As DW and I then took our turns in this shower, mudding off, the fog in the other room got thicker and thicker. But this yours truly Mickey was not satisfied. He got carried away with his new-found powers and he continued to push the steam button, over and over, drawing for more, more, more buckets of steam!
We entered the steam room, now toasty warm. DW sat in one alcove and mischievous Mickey in another. The steam and the heat was divine. It got warmer. Then hotter. And hotter. And hotter.
Soon DW and Mickey lost each other in the fog. It got so thick, in fact, that Mickey could not even see the paw on his out-stretched arm.
"It's getting kind of hot, dear," DW says, from somewhere in the room.
There are two buttons on the side of each of these three alcoves. (Still I wondered what combination of three might be doing this adventure together...) One button was for a mist to be sprayed from various nozzles on the side of these alcoves, and one button was for a shower from overhead. Cold water, now, would have been nice.
Water would have been nice.
That's right: once again, faucets with no water. My powers were waning!
DW says through the fog, "I guess these faucets don't work either."
I push each button again and again. I try holding each button in. But no relief comes. No water at all. Not from the overhead faucet, not from the side jets.
"Whatever you do -" the voice of DW says from the distance, "do not push that steam button again."
This impish Mickey began to wonder if he'd already over-done it with the steam button. It was getting rather hot.
A little bit later her voice comments, "I don't know how much longer I can stand this heat."
On the side of each of these alcoves was also a faucet, a simple garden faucet, with a piece of garden hose attached. These hoses were cut off, at about two or three feet in length. Lo and behold, by turning this garden faucet, a solid stream of icy-cold water came pouring out the cut-off end of hose!
In non-elegant fashion I held the cut-off end of hose over my head and let the cold water pour down all over me. Oh relief! Like jumping in a mountain stream on a hot summer's day.
"Try the hose on the side," I call to DW through the fog.
She does not answer, but I hear the sound of flowing water. It flows and splashes for awhile. Still she does not speak.
It's not long before I'm hot again. I pour more water upon my head.
Minutes later comes the sound of the door opening. DW must be leaving. Surely we were still only two in this place.
I say, "Are you going somewhere?"
Her voice answers, "It's getting kind of hot." Then it says, "I'm going to try some of those lotions." Then clunk, the door closes.
Well it was getting really quite hot. I mean burning hot. Determined to stay in the room, I had to nearly keep the hose running constant upon my head.
I don't suppose there's any way to stop this steam, I wondered to myself. It just kept flowing and flowing.
And after a while, I, too, left the steam room. The outer room was clear. DW was at the table. As I closed the door behind me, she says, "Don't push that steam button again."
DW picks up the tubes and bottles, one at a time, looking at each one, quizzically. She comments, "I wish that attendant had told us what these lotions were for." She adds, "Wish I'd brought my reading glasses," and then, after a pause, laughs at the absurdity of her thought.
I didn't really care what all these products were. I mean, all those lotions and things - they're girl stuff, anyways - aren't they?
She opens the cap to each lotion, one after another, trying this one and that one, on different parts of her skin.
"Oooh, try this," she says, handing me one tube.
I did. It looked like sparkly, greenish toothpaste-gel. It was kind of cool. I mean - literally - cool. It was weird how refreshingly cool it was.
I smeared it all over my body. Me now all in green.
It was so cool, in fact, that it gave me shivers. So, it was back into the steam room, for me, to warm up. Most remarkably, as hot as that steam room still was - my skin remained cool! It was so strange a sensation. It was totally backwards from the way I cook, that is, whenever I cook food, which isn't too often, DW will attest. But when I do cook, like on the grill, the meat is usually burnt on the outside and frozen on the inside.
Not this Mickey piece of meat. My skin was cold while my insides were hot. So odd a feeling.
When I heard the glass door open, I said aloud, "You've got to try this green stuff. It's really weird. I'm hot but my skin is cold."
And her voice replies, "Yeah I know. But I've tried this other stuff. I don't know what it is or what it's for, but it feels good."
Mischievous Mickey finally behaved. I did not push the steam button again. So, with the steam diminishing, along with the green stuff, coupled with the occasional garden hose over the head - the room remained bearable.
If we'd brought anything into our surreal experience in this holodeck room - besides reading glasses - it would have been watches. After probably what was about fifteen minutes, I worried about the end of the hour approaching. The last thing this modest Mickey and DW Minnie wanted was to have goddess reappear to see us still dressed in different muds or green gels or whatever else - and time not being fair, as it may or may not be - we erred on the side of preparedness, showering once again, and towelling off - way early - and then stood there waiting, almost at attention, like good girl and boy that we were, back into our respectable bathing suits - waiting for the goddess knock-on-the-door.
When the knock finally came, we loudly said to the door, Yes! Okay!, and then as if we needed the knock to leave, we waited no further and left the holodeck room, coming out into the real world, out into the empty passageway, no goddess in sight.
After DW and DYT had changed back into our street clothes (cruise clothes?), we found Goddess at the reception counter, along with another goddess. We dutifully returned our white robes to the goddesses.
They smiled, thanked us, asked if everything was fine.
Not that I really cared at that point what had happened to us during the holodeck experience - but - since they asked - I smiled and replied, "It was great. Wonderful. The shower didn't work. At least not for awhile."
Goddess tilted her head, not understanding.
"Doesn't that...sometimes happen?," I ask.
She tilted her head a little the other way. The other goddess asks, "The shower didn't work?"
"Yes. No. I mean not for awhile. There was no water at first but after a bit of a wait it came on."
"Hmm," goddess #2 replies with the slightest, quizzical frown.
There didn't seem to be anything for any one of us to say at that moment, and so, for a few moments, we just smiled. All four of us smiled. I smiled. DW smiled. Goddess smiled. #2 smiled.
Yes. Well.
I was about to turn and further my exploration about the ship, when #2 pipes up and adds, "That sometimes happens," as if she suddenly recalled the explanation.
"Excuse me?" I say.
"That sometimes happens," she repeated.
Now I give the quizzical look.
She continues, "That happens in port - when we leave port - when they fill the pool up - we don't get any water up here -..."
Jack Benny would have been proud of my imitation of his long, blank into-the-camera look.
No water in the spa when they fill the pool...
Okay.
Did it matter at this point?
Nah.
"We're sorry for the inconvenience," says goddess.
"Oh...no problem," I reply.
She asks, "Would you like to go to the Rain Forest?" My eyebrows go up. She says, "May I offer you a pass to the Rain Forest?"
Oh yes yes yes, you certainly may.
And as we left the spa - the pass to the Rain Forest clutched in my mitt and a smile on my face - I thought to myself, Oh how life is good!
) I could only get through one line at a time because I had to keep wiping the tears out of my eyes to see the words! The two goddesses smiling at you and your wife, smiling back, was just too much! I really lost it when you said that goddess # 2 said "that happens". OMG, again!!!! 
