And So On

1. I got back from Calgary yesterday afternoon.

2. I’m writing this to you from the airport because I’m leaving again.

3. I’m pretty tired, but I think I’m going to make it.

4. I had a totally fantastic time in Calgary at Pudding Yarn. They were celebrating their 10th year in business, and I can totally see why they’ve been successful so long. Great shop, great staff, great yarn. You should go.

5. I suffered a wicked case of camnesia, and forgot to take any pictures at all with my proper camera.

6. Except I took one or two with my phone. The toilet in my hotel room was heated, and lit up.

toilet 2015-09-24

7. I was not a fan. The heating thing just makes it seem like someone just got up before you, but the way it’s lit up?  I guess it’s so you can find the thing in the dark, but I, well.  I think I can live without this particular technological advance. Some things don’t need direct lighting.  This has just got to be one of them.

8. That will be all.

91 thoughts on “And So On

  1. I can’t decide which is more scary: that night-light toilet, or the one in the pub restroom in Munich where the entire seat (not just a plastic cover, but the seat itself) rotated through a sanitizer attachment as soon as you stood up. They both seem possessed.

  2. So creepy. It’s like the rest stops on the 401 that have signs informing you that you can select less water or more water depending on what you just did in the toilet. And if you don’t choose, it will decide what you did based on the amount of time you were sitting down. Technology is great but sometimes….

  3. The only time toilets should light up is when you’re sailing on the sea and you pump phosphorescence in. My then 10 year old cousin called it “Star Wars in the toilet!”

    And I love Pudding Yarn from afar based solely on the name, no pictures necessary!!

  4. Have to agree with you on the light-up toilets! Don’t go to Japan, where they open by themselves when you enter the bathroom, and then play classical music.

  5. I agree that a warm toilet seat can be a bit off-putting, but I’d really appreciate one in the winter. There’s little as unpleasant as a cold seat in the wee hours of the morning. The lighting up part is a bit odd, but it makes for a great night-light.

    FWIW, my Captcha icon for this post is the light bulb!

  6. As someone who’s totally convinced/paranoid that someday a snake or rat will be in my toilet and bite me in the rear I would LOVE to have a light up toilet.

  7. A light-up toilet (with what appear to be blacklights of some sort)…….that must be for those that miss the seat often. Or the drunks that need to find it in the middle of the night.

    I don’t know.

    Somewhere, I have a photo that I took of a bidet when we were in either Toronto or Niagara Falls. I’d never seen one before. To be fair, I was either 17 or 18 and in high school.

  8. First thing my DH did in Japan was check out the crazy toilets – every hotel was different. Hi camera roll was wedding photos (why we were there) and toilets.

  9. Oh goodness, too weird.

    And then my second thought: are those UV-intensive lights? They must be. I’m picturing telling my rheumatologist why I’m having a lupus flare THERE and watching him trying not to fall down laughing but just steady, steady, c’mon, keep a straight face till she leaves….

  10. Am I the only one who thinks it’s just a little odd that we have a photo of the (not-liked) toilet, but no pics of the wonderful store, wonderful yarn, or wonderful people?

    I think there has been too much travel, and not enough sleep. 🙂

  11. That black light toilet is just creepy. My first act would have been to call the front desk and demand that it be turned off .. the light I mean, not the toilet.

  12. Yeah I don’t think a heated toilet makes sense unless you are in an unheated washroom–but then why not heat the building instead?

    My guess is that the light is for the folks who pee standing up.

  13. Did it mesure your bloodpresure or did it analyse your pee? It did, if your doctor called you, because your stresslevel indicators were too high because of fiberitis…..

  14. I suppose a UV light might be useful for disinfection… but if I were designing one like that, the light would only work with the lid down. I can’t see lighted toilets ever going mainstream, but maybe I’m just too traditional.

  15. Does it help a little that there are a bunch of knitters who are SO EXCITED about this coming weekend?!? I shall bring my little Aeropress and my delicious coffee and we shall all caffeinate together. Safe travels.

    • Another knitter who is totally excited about this weekend! I hope you get a great night of sleep tonight and have a relaxing day tomorrow before we all get there!

  16. I love when you a post with “That will be all.” It usually means you have realized that you just went a wee bit too far! Thanks for the laugh.

  17. Lights at night…kettles yes, toilets no.. Just plain wrong. But it did me me laugh. Did your wee look green? Colour combining and all that….

  18. Oh, Japanese toilets!!! Either basic squat china ones (although spotlessly clean) or many functions all labeled in Japanese. I think the person who said that the light was to assist with aim is spot on.

  19. I just got back from Ecuador, and the bathrooms in the Quito airport had mini TVs showing video ads on top of every faucet. My husband said they had them in the men’s room as well.

    I wonder if it gets people to wash their hands more thoroughly.

  20. It just looks wrong. Why do you need to warm a toilet seat inside a building that is centrally heated? Also not keen on the light. Usually hotel rooms are way too light and not like my home where we don’t have street lights.

  21. I expect the lighted toilet was indeed invented to spare the housekeeper (and barefoot co-occupants) the smelly puddles around the toilet. Weird, but understandable.

  22. OH NO NO I am thinking the lit up toilet would be the best thing ever for the men in my life…in the middle of the night…maybe after a few beers, or not. No excuses for a missed target. And a warm seat hmmm in winter, might not be such a bad thing either.

  23. Like…a mini swimming pool…or a landing pad! Seriously, though, I volunteer at a place that has the toilet seat made of glow-in-the-dark material, you know the kind that is unassuming yellowish-white and absorbs light, then glows bright green when you turn off the light?? I’m guessing that someone thought it was hilarious when buying a replacement seat, and that few people would ever notice since the light would usually be on…except that I turn it off to laugh every time I’m in there, then turn it back on to complete my mission…

  24. Too funny! The post and the comments. Funniest for me was “who changes the lightbulb?”
    The Newcastle golf course outside of Seattle has heated toilet seats, which are nice on cold days!

  25. Well, like everyone else, I just couldn’t resist the heated and glowing loo (toilet to Americans, like my dear husband, but I was not allowed to say that word growing up as it was considered lower class) …. very spooky, I think I would be freaked out. Though the point about the value of heating the loo seat in the middle of one of those fierce transatlantic winters is well taken. We solve the problem by have a wooden seat — it’s never freezing, and feels quite welcoming during cold spells. Now all we need is someone to invent a nice pattern for a knitted knee-to-ankle warmer that could be tucked around one’s legs on those occasions when things take a while … Steph??

  26. I also have experienced the high-end Japanese ‘water closets’. Heated seats, and some other functions (there were lots of buttons, but I didn’t experiment).
    We were in the Osaka / Tokyo regions in April during the Cherry blossom bloom time. The weather can still be a bit chilly then. Sitting down on a warm seat does make you think that it was just occupied, but my mother said it was quite comfortable during her nightly visit. Apparently we are used to room-temp or lower. I don’t recall if any had a nightlight. It might be helpful for kids.

    • We just visited our son in Kochi and they have a fancy heated seat toilet with a bidt and lots of buttons and there;s a mini sink in the top of the tank – when you flush water comes out of a little faucet and runs into the tank. They don’t have central heating and the heated seat helps – but when we were there it was summer and the boys kept turning it back on. Never tried the squat toilets that were an option in almost every public facility. A blue light…made me laugh..

  27. I was in Tokyo in January and LOVED the heated toilet seat in the hotel. I didn’t decipher what all the buttons labeled in Japanese did, just the flush, but the heat was great.
    In the rest rooms at my company there, the toilet seats weren’t heated, but they did make this very comical burbling sound, apparently a recording. I guess that was to cover up the sound of any activities you might be doing…

  28. You have to admit that its a great color–socks in loo blue, anyone? (and MY photo was a man–the kind of figure you see on rest room doors 😉 )

  29. I had an argument recently with my brother on the toilet seat issue, and afterwards was trying to think of a killing argument for why he should put the seat down instead of me putting it up (after finishing our business). I finally had an AHA! moment – men should leave the toilet seat down because women have to sit whether we pee or poop! Two sits beats one stand and one sit.

    Speaking of going places, I’m going to the Flathead River Writer’s Conference in Kalispell, MT this weekend, and I am definitely going to suggest that they query you about being a speaker next year. They’ve never had a humor writer that I know of, much less a knitting humor writer – and you’re such a great writer and blogger you should be a presenter. It would also be the only way I could see you in person, since I live in the dark hole of Montana (whenever any advertiser puts up a map on television about where their stores or offices are located, Montana is almost always the empty space of the West). I hope the Flathead Writers take my suggestion.

  30. The light in the toilet is GREAT. No more excuses by the guys in the house that it was dark and they didn’t want to wake anyone by turning on the light in the bathroom. As my friend’s bathroom plaque says, “My aim is to have a clean toilet; your aim would be appreciated.”

  31. I totally agree on the heated seats–I also hate them in cars, just don’t like the weird feeling of a warm bum, it feels more wet than comfortable. As for the lights I am going to assume a woman designed the hotel and figured this way drunks could find the toilet in the dark or at least men at night could find the right place to urinate so that when their wives came in after them they wouldn’t get a nasty surprise. ;0)

  32. On my list is to visit the toilet museum in India. It amazes me that something as simple as a toilet can have so many variations but I’ve never heard of a light-up toilet before. I’ll be looking for one now. I love how random this blog can be.

  33. I think it’s meant to help gentleman guests take aim in the dark. Or to help any guest find their way in the dark.

    We had to replace a toilet seat about a year ago. I did a scouting trip, and came home to report to my husband that they had models that not only shut themselves without a slam, but that had “task lights,” and he was all for it (until he saw the price tag).

  34. We had a toilet in our elementary school that mistakenly had hot water running into it. We got a steam bath every time we used it!

  35. …no to to the lited potty. Some things just need to be left alone…
    But then again..if you are really drunk, and your tummy is doin backflips, it could be useful….?

  36. My dear friend Laura attended your class at Pudding Yarn in Calgary on September 22nd and raved about it. I spent this past weekend at her house visiting and knitting and she shared some of the things that she learned from you. It sounds like it was a wonderful class! And the history of knitted goods is so interesting! Thank you so much for sharing yourself and your knowledge in such lovely, intimate settings. And thank you for signing my “Knitting Rules” book! Safe travels.

  37. I’m wondering if the toilet light is in the “blacklight” spectrum to show if the bowl is clean? If so, I’d rather have a lit up toilet seat. Enough said?

  38. I stayed with friends who had a house in Kimberley where the loo seat was padded with foam encased in plastic so it was sort of squishy. It felt warmish to sit on but when you sat the foam padding was compressed so it gave out a sigh each time. Sadly it made no noise when you stood up which is surely when a sigh would have been so much more appropriate!

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