And finally we were home. After a flight from New York to Warsaw -- which was delayed, like most flights on LOT Polish Airlines -- we had a relatively smooth trip up to Tallinn, despite landing in a snow/sleet/rain storm.This was followed by sloshing through the pouring rain from Tallinn to Tartu -- so deliriously tired, I couldn't tell whether I was awake or asleep (don't worry, I wasn't driving).
After all that traveling the one thing I desired most was a shower to wash the grime of journeying by air from my body. But there was just one problem. My brother-in-law Aap, who had been house sitting for the past month, informed us upon arrival that the water hadn't been working for about a week.
You see, during a recent cold spell, the water pressure in the house literally blew the shower off the wall of our sauna. The metallic pieces lay strewn across the floor, and Aap decided to turn off the house water so as to keep it from continuously blasting from the sauna wall.
How he managed to live without running water for a week is a mystery to me. Did he brush his teeth? Did he order in coffee? How did he flush the toilet sans eau? Had he been holding it all this time? I decided that the guy was from Mulgimaa and that it was better to leave such questions unanswered.
Luckily for us the torumehed were able to come the next morning to install a new shower in the sauna and I was fortunate to be blessed with a good old fashioned case of irregularity from my travels, meaning I wouldn't have to use the compost heap for some ... more compost.
But I still can't get that image out of my head -- of the shower head exploding from the wall due to a cold snap. Could it happen again? While I am standing in front of it? Is this a regular occurrence in Eesti land? Who knows.
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How did it blow the shower head off? Did the pipes freeze or something? Because the water pressure blowing up the shower seems like fiction.
Yes, and it can be dangerous.
To avoid it from happening, many mulks in the Viljandi area have an assistant turn on the water -- gently -- once they are under the shower with the tap already in the fully open position.
Faucets are kept fully open all the time and only the master valve is operated. Wasteful? Yes. Better a headful of shrapnel? You bet.
Showering thus necessarily is a more social event, giving rise to the peculiar occupation of "shower-caller" in wealthier mulk homes that could afford one.
I'm hoping it was more elaborate than just the shower head, otherwise both you and your brother-in-law lose manliness points for not fixing it yourself. :P
I'm hoping it was more elaborate than just the shower head, otherwise both you and your brother-in-law lose manliness points for not fixing it yourself. :P
I hate to agree with Flasher, but he's right. :-P
Even in NYC it should get cold enough to bust a pipe or two everyone once and awhile.
If you go away let a pipe somewhere drip a little bit and you should be fine.
Oh, and where a helmet next time you shower. :)
Well, my manly fellow bloggers, the issue was that we didn't really know what was wrong with the pipes.
It wasn't that cold last week -- why did the shower head and accompanying metal stuff break?
So we called in the experts to have a look at the system and fix our leaky tub as well.
Fortunately it seems that the shower head and knobs, etc, were just cheap and that's why they buckled in relatively mild weather.
As for my manliness, well, I have never felt any shame in buying a Vanilla Ninja kohuke. So there.
Earlier in your blog you were talking about how Mr. Lotman the semioticist was a gunner for the Russians.
I don't recall ever getting into that on this blog, though I may have quoted someone that did.
Estonian identity shouldn't not Russian or not German or not Jewish it should be what it is, but accepting of other groups. Then it will be truly scandinavian or european or what have you.
Officially, that's the way it is. One thing I think the Scandinavians do right that the Estonians could borrow is give greater autonomy to municipalities. Things in Estonia seem more centralized.
Looks like you cannot really stand up in your sauna. What kind of sauna is that?
"All fours 2000?"
I don't think that's actually his sauna, and I'm fairly sure the bottom edge of the photo is NOT the floor of the room.
Also, interesting Nordic-feminist sauna semiotics there: anyone familiar with saunas will know that the higher up you go, the more intense the heat is. So the woman is more hardcore than the man, in this case.
Why is everyone in Estonia an amateur semiotician?
It's like students in an English class in high school -- at some point they realize it sounds "deeper" to say, "I'm thinking about a symbol of a woman in a sauna" rather than just "I'm thinking of a woman in a sauna".
It's all about obfuscation.
Though Lotman was undoubtedly intelligent.
So the woman is more hardcore than the man, in this case.
Either that or the man just wants to have a peek at the action going on under that towel <.<
How sad was this story about students who hate fashism. But I still have some questions to Puu!
1) Your friend is married to Harry Männil`s family. She married to Männils son? What nationality is she? Where does she live?
2) You told Männil was a doctor. What kind of doctor?
3) Where Harry Männil got hes doctor`s degree?
3) When and where jews planted a tree for him?
4) What did Harry Männil do that jews planted a tree for him?
5) How your students knew your friend is married to Männil family, was in Estonian media? I havent read anything recently about Männils family weddings.
Tänan ette vastuse eest!
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