The Secret Life of Hairdryers

Monday, January 17, 2011
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man (or woman) in possession of a good house in northern Minnesota must be in want of a hairdryer.


Why?

Well certainly not for drying hair.

Personally, I try to limit my wet hair's encounters with a hairdryer for a couple reasons. For one thing, I see no reason to use the energy it takes to operate a blow dryer when ever-abundant air gets my hair dry in a good 4-12 hours after I hop out of the shower. Also, when I use a blow dryer, I kind of end up looking like Mariah Carey, circa 1998 VH1 Divas Live.


So, no, the secret life of hairdryers has nothing to do with self-beautification. (Did you really expect beauty tips from the girl who thinks plunking eyebrows is some modern spawn of medieval torture?)

No, around these parts, hairdryers are necessary because things like this happen:

 I spent my waking moments on Saturday morning, clad in my pajamas and robe, crouched in the cabin's open doorway, using a hairdryer to melt the ice (and icicles) that had formed overnight on the threshold and on the screen door. We have an ice dam on the roof which is causing the roof's melting snow to run down the side of the cabin (instead of dripping off the eaves) and in between the door frame.

While, I'm a big fan of icicles . . .

they're a big problem when they start forming where they shouldn't.

As I watched the ice melt away under the heat of the hair dryer on Saturday morning, I couldn't help but recall the first hair dryer my family bought. In my teenage years, my brother, father, and I maintained a small ice rink, 28 x40', in our backyard. We resurfaced the rink about twice a week and the process included either my brother or I heading down to the basement and using a hairdryer to thaw out the pipe which ran to the outside spigot. It worked like a charm every time. No doubt about it, those hairdryers are handy tool for every backwoods man to have in their arsenal.

In all seriousness, the ice dam is not a "haha" issue but an "oh @!$*%&" issue. It's resolution will require more than just a reckoning with a hairdryer. But until Andy has time to get up on the roof (or until we hire a professional to deal with it), you don't need to worry about me: I've got my hairdryer.

2 comments:

  1. Ada, that is not hilarious and completely hilarious at the same time.. Brought over my German hair dryer which obviously work only on half the energy as the volt is half here too....
    having this lousy insulated windows, we got some sort of foil to put on the windows which need to be dried by hairdryer. As this far traveled hairdryer works on half the energy only... we never got this foil properly done.
    Paula

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ha! My hubby used my hairdryer to put plastic on our windows! Yes, I'm a Minnesotan too! :-)

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