TRENDING NOW

One of the latest additions to my favorite shelter site, Houzz is “Trending Now: 10 Dream Baths That Have it All.”  Ah yes – huge bathrooms with walk-in showers and multiple shower heads, enormous soaking tubs, the latest patterns in tile floors and walls, and views guaranteed to send you to a Nirvana-like state of mind. Plenty of storage, sometimes lots of veined marble, exotic plants, heated towel racks, heated floors, and mirrors galore. And always, always, big, fluffy white towels.

Like any piece in any shelter magazine or website, the homes and décor shown far a far cry from what’s possible for most of us homeowners, especially us senior citizens. Oh, once I might have loved a huge soaking tub – the huger the better, all the better to accommodate my not insignificant embonpoint. Today, I’m happy to have a shower with proper grab bars and a handy place to sit if I need to, or rest my leg on so I can wash my nether parts. With my generally stiff self, and poor legs and knees, there is no way now that I’ll be able to get in or out of a tub.

All of the trendy bathroom things are very nice, and were I in a position to do so, I’d not turn up my nose at any of them with one exception: big, white, fluffy towels. Big? Alright, nice. Fluffy? Well, how do they dry? But White? Get real! White towels are for the desperate homeowner following her realtor’s over-the-top run down of what sells a house. White is for people who never, ever lift a finger, never wear makeup, never do garden work, house work, or work on their car, and never sweat at all.  Well...

This whole Trending Now thing is absurd, even more so on the television news broadcasts. You’re supposed to pay close attention so that you remain “in the know” about what’s important in the not-so-important, superficial world around us. I am quite “in the know” in my own sphere, and have no need to be trendy.

Speaking of useless filler, I’m convinced that the TV station people lie awake at night thinking of how to fill an hour or two of what’s called News. One of my favorite useless things is the Storm Trackers they send out in bad weather. I’d like to know who is driving in their own car while watching the Storm Tracker. And what about the traffic reports? Radio? Good idea, but on TV? Do some commuters have their spouses watch the traffic report and all them on their cell phone to report in? Well, enough of that for today.