Back Home Again From Indiana

I have returned from my week in Indiana. GenCon went well, and the time off with my family better still. Uncles, aunts, cousins, and grandmother all made time to visit; I got to see nearly everybody on the trip.

The weather even cooperated for some of the trip. While the first day and last few days of my trip were scalding hot, dripping wet with humidity, and occasionally marked by a desert-like wind, a stretch of three or four days in the middle was actually quite pleasant. I even got to eat dinner one night outdoors at this awesome crêpes restaurant my cousin knew about. Got to find a place like that in Denver.

Since last time I was in Indiana, they've decided to quit fighting on the whole "we're not doing Daylight Savings Time" issue; they were two hours ahead, just like the rest of the Eastern Zone. I think maybe that makes loony ol' Arizona the only holdout. (Though perhaps on this one issue, I'd rather see the rest of us side with them -- as unlikely as that is to happen.)

But there's one thing I do not get about Indiana -- the whole "soft water" thing. Apparently, the Indiana tap water is widely regarded to be crap. I'm sure this is objectively testable, and I'm suppose if my palate had any ability to distinguish between kinds of water, I might notice it too. In any case, everyone in Indiana seems to think they need a water softener to address this issue. Huge bags of special water softening salt are sold at every single gas station. I'd see them in huge piles in between the pumps.

Yet whatever the supposed benefits of soft water, there is one major detriment in my mind -- showers do not get you clean. This puny soft water is incapable of getting the soapy film off your skin when you try to rinse it off. Between that and the humidity on a particularly bad day, I'd feel no more clean two seconds after stepping out of the shower than I did before getting in.

I miss the family, but I was also very glad to have a regular shower again. It felt as good as returning from a week long camping trip.