TENSION RODS

Also, the Inherent Anxiety of Trader Joe's and Lessons from a Christmas Possum

My shower curtain keeps falling.

I found it like that when I returned from 2 months away, lying on the floor of my shower and looking absolutely filthy just for being there. Why is it that a shower curtain on the ground seems so repellent?

When I got the apartment it came with a spring and twist shower rod, known (very aptly) as a tension rod. You extend it to meet both sides of the shower, twist it out to increase its tension against the walls and Voila!

As you probably know, these things sound a lot niftier than they actually are. Put too much weight on it (aka a towel) and it collapses. And likewise if the temperatures get too low, the spring loosens and the grip between the rod and the walls slips and it collapses.

And that’s where we’re at. No matter how I try, the rod simply will not stay stuck to the wall on its own. And then last weekend it got really cold.

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