Hedonic Inflation in the Bathroom

[Riggerjack]

On the other hand, how many people need a specially adapted bathroom because they gained weight dedicating all of their energy to a job in order to buy a specially adapted bathroom in their old age? (I am thinking of family members)

Buy? That hadn't occurred to me. I built mine, and I'll build the next. Mind you, when I build that one, I'll be retired.

But there will come a day when I am less capable, unless I die first. I prefer to be ready for that day, rather than try to cobble a solution when it is needed, AND I'm less capable.

I've lived in a one room cabin, with an outdoor cold shower and an outhouse. I've lived in a larger cabin, with no power, or running water, and an outhouse. I have lived in standard tract housing without power and/running water. I understand what the range of solutions are, and know what I'm willing to do to get what I want. My optimal solution is not optimal for most folks...

[George the original one]

Riggerjack, I think we all respect your choices.

In our case, we have 2.5 bathrooms. We weren't looking for them, they came with the 3 bedroom split level house. The old age future me might curse about that, but the current me says if either of us are not able to go up/down stairs or make it into these narrow bathrooms, then we probably can't maintain this property and should move.

[Riggerjack]

3 baths for 2 people is wasteful. And I would do things differently today than in the past. But it is what it is.

We built this place for resale, so that is the determining factor in 3 baths. I've always looked at this place as a learning experience. I had never cleared land, or developed a lot before. I'd never had too much house before. I'm still trying to convince my wife that it IS too much house...

But one thing I have learned is that while I do want a smaller house, I don't want a small master bathroom. A half bath for me is fine, but a grand bath is fine, too.

[7Wannabe5]

Ego said: Ahah! Why do they lack spine? Do more walls cause shrinking spines?

Oh, I don't know why I was picking on the Millennials. My kids are Millennials, and I like them and most of their friends very much. At least their hearts are mostly in the right place. It's not their fault that nobody took the time to teach them very many practical skills or kicked them out-of-doors to learn on their own. At least in my neck of the woods, there is a fairly wide generational disconnect between the people who would like to live in a tiny house and the people who could actually build a tiny house. I think this is due to the fact that when people used to have a lot of kids, maybe one would inherit the farm, and you would send one off to be higher educated, encourage one to join the clergy, but the rest of the litter was going to have to hard-scrabble around a bit to find a means of supporting themselves. Also, IMO, daycare inherently sucks as a nurturing environment for the very young. I worked at several and that's why I wouldn't leave one of my kids in one until they were old enough to interact with peers. A lot of the Millennials experienced what would have been seen as a poor-little-rich-kid upbringing a couple generations ago, but it doesn't seem that way to them because all of their peers had the same experience. It might also be relevant that although many of them have little money and lots of student loans right now, they are likely to eventually inherit a great deal of wealth from their grandparents and parents.

On the other hand, how many people need a specially adapted bathroom because they gained weight dedicating all of their energy to a job in order to buy a specially adapted bathroom in their old age? (I am thinking of family members)

What if I reject the premise? What if I operate on the assumption that l will not need a specially adapted bathroom in my old age? Am I being delusional? When I look around myself here in the U.S. then the answer is yes, I am delusional.

When I zoom out and look at the whole world then the story changes. Old people are more capable out of necessity. They have no choice.

You are the average of the five people with whom you spend the most time....

I guess I'm somewhere on the spectrum between you and Riggerjack on this one. If the day comes that I can no longer squat, I will rely on my stash of morphine and crawl to my final resting place on my elder compost pile rather than making use of an adapted bathroom. HOWEVER, I do not agree that I will end up on the elder compost pile sooner than some of my hormone-deprived-through-subcutaneous-fat-depletion-leading-to-hip-fracture-skinny-azz peers. I hereby challenge you and all other comers to a Squat-Off at the ERE Reunion in 2050

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PCkvCPvDXk

[BRUTE]

brute thinks there's definitely a feedback loop regarding the bathrooms. brute has lived in a few places where people generally do not have sit-down toilets, but squatting toilets. brute couldn't even squat deep enough to use one of these (stupid hip flexors), yet old people (80+) there squat ass2grass. having to do it to take a dump probably helped.

[7Wannabe5]

@BRUTE: Refusing to use a kneeling pad to weed your garden helps, and I highly recommend making social contract with some densely muscled individuals around 6'2" 195 to hook your knees around their elbows and then throw their entire body weight forward repeatedly. You might have to bite your lip in the moment, but your hip-flexors will thank you long run.

[BRUTE]

@7wannabe5: brute is thankful for the tips, but is skeptical that a 195lbs individual could do much to move brute around also, social contact is not brute's strong side.

[Ego]

@Ego
Those styles of bathrooms are great until you get a case of diarrhea. Try squatting there until for twenty or thirty minutes while your body voids itself. Been there, done that. I didn't know what was worse, having the runs or not being able to walk after I was done.

I highly recommend making social contract with some densely muscled individuals around 6'2" 195 to hook your knees around their elbows and then throw their entire body weight forward repeatedly. You might have to bite your lip in the moment, but your hip-flexors will thank you long run.

There you go ffj. Problem solved.

[jennypenny]

Haha ... you just knew this thread was going to get weird.


I have to admit, of all the first world luxuries I would give up, my bathroom isn't one of them. I'd rather spend 90% of my life sitting on a comfortable toilet and 10% needing assistance* than 100% of my life squatting over a hole. #pamperedasses

*I speak from experience. I've had mobility issues and needed assistance using the bathroom for over a year not that long ago.

[BRUTE]

thing is, brute is pretty sure that squat toilet isn't uncomfortable with the necessary range of motion in hip flexors. it's another one of those things like "oh, humans could NEVER live without a car".

[slog]

So I have a question as far as being male and using those squat toilets.
I was in a foreign airport over the weekend and they had a single squat stall which happened to be the only one available. Rather than having an "oh shit" moment I was pretty excited but once I was down and ready I found my man parts just hanging out right with the back of my now ankle bound pants. I was so worried about pissing directly onto my pants that once I heard another stall open up I aborted mission and secured a traditional toilet. I'm curious if I was doing it wrong, like hips too forward over the ankles not squatting back correctly. Or if you just have to take a leak first or have the self control to simply not urinate. I guess if I took my pants off and hung them on the door would have been problem solved but I was wearing my field work boots and it was seeming like too much work.

[Ego]

Here you go slog. Move further back. Tilt downward. Aim. Fire.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJXWa7Annak

[jennypenny]

Ego--I never know whether it's safe to click on the videos you post. Past history suggests it's 50/50.

[BRUTE]

brute clicked the link and still isn't sure if it's safe for work. it does involve a scantily-clad female squatting on a toilet.

[Ego]

I figured the entire thread isn't really safe for work so I left off the warning.

[BRUTE]

Ego is not safe for work. they should put a sticker on him.

[slog]

Thanks for the video
This may warrant some home experimentation. I guess half of my problem stems from the clothing I wear. I suspect that the jeans I'm currently wearing (same ones from airports story) in ankle position would pile up and consume about half the open area of that toilet even if I jumped up and did a perfect mimic of her posture.

[Eureka]

What if I reject the premise? What if I operate on the assumption that l will not need a specially adapted bathroom in my old age?

I reject that premise. My approach is to keep my body lean and capable of using an ordinary bathroom even in old age.

[7Wannabe5]

Eureka said: My approach is to keep my body lean and capable of using an ordinary bathroom even in old age.

Depends on how you define "lean." You don't have to look like the man in the picture you posted. My phenotype or appearance is pretty much the opposite of that guy, and at 51, I can drop right down into the position he is modeling, pop right back up again, and maintain that pose until I get bored with it. All my other health measures such as blood pressure, blood sugar, resting pulse are in the very healthy range and I have pretty much an iron-clad digestive system that almost never gives me any sort of problem. It's time to drop BMI as the metric and move to Waist-to-Height ratio, especially for the aging members of our population. All you need is a long piece of string to determine you have a healthy Waist-to-Height ratio, but this calculator with the built-in silhouettes is kind of fun.

http://www.health-calc.com/body-composi ... ight-ratio

One thing this thread made me realize was that my current household (until I actually move into my camper)consisting of two humans and 3 large dogs actually produces more canine feces than human feces, and none of the more-carnivorous-species-canine feces goes down the black water system to be processed. So much of what we do makes so little sense.

[BRUTE]

+1 on both waist/height ration and most of what humans do makes very little sense