I don't carry a water bottle around with me.
I live in the USA. I am never far from good, pure, cool fresh water out of a tap. So why carry a water bottle around like a security blanket?
Until Jeff Lowenfels sent me this proposed Easy Sunday guest post, I hadn't given water bottles a second thought.
I realize that with all the trouble in the world, publishing a guest post about water bottles is small potatoes. There are famines, wars, the economy, tariffs, immigration, the Epstein coverup, and the erosion of our democracy to worry about. But it is Sunday, and a day to chill with the mental "comfort food" of an opinion on something of no real consequence.
Jeff is my age, and a college classmate. He has an opinion on water bottles.
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| 32 oz. $17.50 on Amazon |
Jeff is famous in Alaska. He has been writing an award-winning garden column for the Alaska Daily News for over 45 years. He is also an attorney who managed Alaska's largest law firm. He ran for Congress a couple of years ago, and lost. He writes books about the essential role microbes play in plant growth.
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| Amazon |
I welcome comments from people who carry a water bottle around and think they have good reason to do it. If we are going to have a lively discussion in the comments section, what better subject on a hot August day than hydration?
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| Lowenfels |
Guest Post by Jeff Lowenfels
Have you ever noticed how many people walk around with a water bottle? I am not just talking about those folks who carry a rolled yoga mat with them, either. I just don’t get it. Where did the idea that you must carry around a half-gallon bottle filled with water come from?
I am 76 years old. I have never had a water bottle and I don’t plan on getting one. Wait, I did have a canteen when I went to overnight camp. You were supposed to fill it, then dip the cloth case into water and hang it. Evaporation was supposed to cool the water. Still, I am never thirsty to the point that I need to be packing a couple of pounds of it all day.
I may simply be too old and remember when no one carried water to anything. I mean, I am part of the generation that went through nuclear, “duck and cover” drills. I don’t remember anyone bringing water with them when we had to go duck under our desks. That would have simply been the silliest thing ever!
And I remember standing in line waiting for my first polio shot, one of the first groups of kids to get one. Not only was no one carrying a water bottle, no one even gave me a drink of water after that punch of a shot. Damn, needles were big back then!
I know water is good for you. In Portland, Oregon, there is a system of sidewalk water fountains around town that run 24/7. I think they were installed so workers would drink water instead of beer and be a bit safer and better on the job. Anyhow, I watched a street guy wash his bulldog in one once. I don’t drink out of those either.
I drink water at home. Then I go out. I don’t rely on a crutch just in case I might break my foot. Why the heck would I rely on having a supply of water, just in case I develop a dry throat any more than I should carry Band Aids around, you know, just in case.
I am glad I never fell for it. Have you ever walked into a thrift store and wandered by the used water bottle shelf(ves)? Now that plastic is no longer allowed, there are dozens and dozens of them. What happened to the classic prediction in the movie “The Graduate” when the advice for the future was plastic?
There was a time when putting logos on these things and giving them away to people who thought they might need water sometime was popular. Now they blaze from unsold bottles, probably destined to become recycled into that black plastic no one wants to cook with anymore. You can find metal ones as well, with plastic caps rendering them unusable. You can’t win.
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9 comments:
When I was in the Army, they had a thing called a Lister Bag. It was a cloth bag they hung from something that was filled with about 50 gallons of water. The cloth oozed out a little water on the outside, so the wind would cool it. I don't remember if that worked, but I guess the Army knew something. They have a lot of experience.
I personally keep a water bottle in my car and a few band aids, just in case.
Here’s your comment from a bottle carrier.
Now I don't always ‘carry’ a bottle, but there’s always one within easy reach.
Three good reasons to cue drinking plenty of fluids (and that’s what the omnipresent bottle does):
*As we get older we are more susceptible to dehydration. I like to make it easy to avoid that.
*Our systems run much more reliably when we’re well hydrated, digestion in particular. You get the message.
*If you’re active.. and we all try to be, right?… you need to stay ahead of getting under-hydrated. Your joints need it.
You’ll feel better, trust me!
Well, I had a near heat stroke on the golf course from not drinking enough water a month ago. I’ve had two previous heat strokes so maybe it’s just me. My body temperature was 106 from washing pots and pans the first time at age 21. I walk when golfing and carry two steel thermos of water. On Friday I drank all of both and didn’t need to pee. Hydration is very important for older people, so carrying a water source is a good idea at least for me.
Studies have shown that even mild dehydration can be debilitating and many don't even come close to the recommended 8-10 glasses of water daily. MEANWHILE THE TRUMP DOJ (PRESIDENTIAL CRIMINAL ATTORNEYS) IS PUSHING THE UTTERLY UNBELIEVABLE ASSERTIONS FROM GHISLAINE "SEE NO EVIL" MAXWELL INTERVIEW. DON'T FALL FOR THAT EITHER.
The only thing I have to add about water bottles is that Trump's name must be all over the Epstein files.
Democrats are going to need a lot more than Epstein to take down Trump. You can raise your water bottle and drink to that.
I think I understand, now. We do not need to carry a water bottle inorder to drink enough water. After all, for most people in most locations, plenty of water is available. The reason we need water bottles is to HYDRATE, which is something entirely different from and much more important than (and technical than!) drinking water.
Need a little help here. As a cancer patient, I try to drink two liters of water per day. Why do we use 8-10 "glasses per day"? The side of my liter cup gives me what I need to know. Even the vaunted OHSU under-hydrates. Signing off, I have 450ML left to go.
I don't carry a water bottle everywhere I go, but I'm definitely aware of my need to stay hydrated. I've had heat stroke a half dozen times.
I not only need water, but electrolytes. I make up a packet of Liquid IV and drink it every day. Ugh. Salty Kool-aid. But it's good for me.
If you're looking for a topic for next week, here's a great article you could cover.
Matthew Syed’s latest in The Sunday Times (London) is a must-read masterpiece that cuts to the heart of the West’s cultural divide. With razor-sharp clarity, he exposes the "purity spiral" where ordinary people are labelled “far right” for holding common sense views, and are treated as untouchables by a self-righteous elite.
quote:
This is about huge sections of western society feeling like untouchables in their own nations. “Hillbillies”, “deplorables”, “white working classes”: these have become the new Dalits.
...Think of corporate HR imposing jargon-ridden (and sometimes illegal) diversity training to cure the bigotry of the great unwashed; of pronoun mandates in the NHS; of banned-word directories imposed by local councils, discouraging terms like “blacklist”; of kids being taught that British history is awful. Lord Glasman recently said that an elite mindset had effectively created a “hostile environment for working-class people” by branding them bigoted for thinking “completely normal things”.
https://www.thetimes.com/comment/columnists/article/commonsense-voters-see-the-abject-folly-of-the-wests-purity-spiral-wc9jf7dmh
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