When it rains, clothes aren’t always the smartest thing

Rain. We all know it.

Naked woman in the rain

This is no exactly what happened to me a few days ago (unfortunately), but I made the best of the weather anyway.

It’s been hot and dry here for a long, long time. Finally, the rains have come. That’s good, because crops and lawns don’t do well on just sunshine. (If you know better, please explain how that works.)

The long, dry period however made that the water drains on the outside gallery of my apartment (I live on the fourth floor, which for Americans is the fifth floor) got clogged with tiny bits of leaves, dirt and other stuff. Which means that water falling from the sky can’t leave.

Now having the whole gallery (where the people walk to get to their front doors) flooded isn’t the greatest thing when the water decides to come inside for a visit. I am sure you can relate to that. No one else on this floor (four homes in total) had the bright idea to look at the drains when it started raining. And it rained hard.

Note – this is not my balcony.

So I took a few wooden chopsticks (really!) and went outside, in the rain, to poke through the clogged drains. I have done this before and it works like a charm.

As I passed by the windows of the neighbour who claimed that the weather being hot is not a reason to be naked, she noticed me and came to the door. She was rather upset that I wore nothing (that attire made all the sense to me, though).

“Why aren’t you wearing clothes? You’re getting wet!” (Amazing, no comment on leaving her clogged drain in peace! 😀 )

“Well, this way I only have to dry myself when I get back in. With clothes, I would get much colder, have to take off the wet clothes afterwards, dry myself, put on dry clothes, and hang the wet stuff out to dry before washing them.”

Without another word, she closed the door. (It was raining and her clothes were getting wet.) I continued to handle the drains, which was only a few minutes of work. Then I went inside, dried myself and made coffee.

A job not to do naked

Yes.

I found one.

It took me a while but a certain song made me realise that this is indeed a job you shouldn’t do naked. First: the song.

The part of the lyrics that got me was: “… in this rubber suit, rubbin’ these cars…”

You may wonder what’s so attractive about a rubber suit while you can wash a car in the nude without a problem. Well, have a bit of a look at the website of Erie County, NY.

TL;DR version: Many soaps contain chemicals that harm fish and degrade water quality.

Not something you want in the ground and the lakes, so probably not something you want on your skin either. A car-wash uses such stuff too, but there the water is gathered (when it’s a good car wash) and recycled. Nothing (or at least very little) of the bad stuff gets into the environment.

Nude car-wash
Once in a while it’s fine, really.

Another reason to wear something when doing this for a day job is that your skin gets exposed to water and soap all day, every day. Now being clean and fresh is good but there is something like ‘too much’. Your skin needs a certain amount of bacteria to stay healthy. Frequent wash and soap will kill those bacteria and, in the end, you will end up sick.

I think I’ve made it clear why working at a car-wash is a prime example of wearing the sung-about rubber suit.

If you think that’s BS or if you have another opinion, I’m curious to hear it!

That is not a good reason to be naked!

This is what I just heard from my neighbour.

Okay, this happened in the past as I am writing that way before you read this, but that’s fine.

I just was outside on the balcony, getting a whiff of fresh air after many boiling days (100+F / 35+C days are not common yet here). My neighbour, curious as she is, saw me.

In the forest

“You are naked.” Her observational skills are definitely amazing. I told her that I had been naked most of the time in this heat.

“That is disgusting,” she shared with me. Because people have clothes so they should wear them. (Note: sweat was waterfalling down from her.)

I detailed somewhat that it was very warm inside my house, and lacking an air conditioning (I hate those things) I could either put on clothes and sweat horribly (I doubt she noticed the jab) or be naked. I had once told her I am a naturist but still she was appalled:

“That is not a good reason to be naked!”

I asked her what would be a good reason. Can you imagine it actually took her a few moments to come up with showering?

I am sure I will be known as the naked pervert of the neighbourhood now, as far as she’s concerned. Good thing the rest of the neighbourhood, as far as I know, isn’t so anally retentive.

Do you have people like this in your circle of acquaintances?

If so… my condolences.

Naked Crow 8. It’s going to come.

Naked Crow 8 - Giant Problems

Yes. This is it. The cover for the eighth book in the Naked Crow series.

Goodness, I still remember the moment when I started writing part 1. I was visiting Gran Hotel Natura on Fuerteventura (which unfortunately closed its naturist doors) and I was reading a naturist fantasy story that was soo poorly written that I thought: I can do better than that.

The enthusiasm that Naked Crow met was actually a surprise for me but also a motivation to keep going. And now part 8 is seeing the light of day.

The e-book will be available on August 10th, on an e-store shelf near you.

Let me tell you what this book is about…

A naturist resort as a place for resident artists. Can you imagine that? Yes, it will happen at the Mighty Oaks. Remarkable artists will stay there for a while, diving into their art – and strange adventures.

Of course, Sheila and Jeremy are part of those adventures.

Slowly, bits and pieces of the history of Mighty Oaks are revealed, as well as a secret the managers of the resort managed to keep for quite a while.

All of this and more will present giant problems for the resident shaman.

Are you ready to face them together with her?

I hope this is enough to fire up your interest for this new book!

Naturism vs. religion

Yep. This might be a big one. Or perhaps it’s a small one.

On the way home from work I was thinking about a suitable subject for a blog post – this one – and I came up with… naturism vs. religion.

We all know naturism. The joy of it, the freedom, the relief that comes from it. And the sadness at times that not more people dare to take that step out of their clothes and into a new life (which I know it was for many people).

So how does religion enter this arena of liberty?

We know about Christianity and Islam as well as we know naturism. Some may know more about one than the other, and that’s quite alright. No one is supposed to know everything.

I know there are Christian Naturist groups online and in real life (let me write that out). There are also Christian groups that condemn the practice of naturism. They are determined to go to their heaven in full dress, all dolled up and so on. Of course. To each their own.

Religious symbols

I also know there are Muslims, e.g. in Egypt, who are naturists. Since naturism isn’t actually ‘a thing’ in that country, these people have to practice their naturism in secret, which is a crying shame. And yes, there are bundles of Muslims who condemn being naked. They are convinced that their god has better things to do than watch naked people.

This opposed to the Christian god, who looked at Adam and Eve while they strolled around in the nude until that certain moment.

And there are atheists, people who don’t believe there is a god peeking over their shoulder all the time. Those are the ones who, in my opinion, should have the fewest hangups about nudity (and still there are lots who do).

Nude Swim

That was the starting point of my idea for this blog post. How would the match of religion vs. naturism unfold? Would religious naturist people stick to their own religion while mingling with other nude folks? Or would naturism be the more common denominator (hey look, I know difficult words) and would, therefore, naturism take the boundaries of religion away? What do you think? Do you have an opinion about this? If you are religious and a naturist, how do you feel about this?