Can 10 trillion percent humidity be a thing? I wouldn’t have thought it could be… until I moved to Austin, Texas – the city with a dozen nicknames. For a certain segment of the summer months here, Austin might as well be Atlantis. It’s like living under warm water, but without the sense of cleanliness.
Natives of the area are easily spotted because they’ve developed gills in their necks to survive outdoors. For us newcomers, breathing is comparable to trying to draw breaths through a wet comforter stuffed into a snorkel. The direct result of moving into this city-built-inside-the-exhaust-of-a-steam-engine, is sweat. Buckets and buckets of sweat that usually end up on my clothes – an ample enemy for Tide PODS and their Child-Guard Tub.
Now, before I draw the wrath of Austinites… Austiners?? Austinians??….. Austin natives, I want to make it clear that this place is beautiful and most of the time it’s not like living in the top half of a steamer pot.
But some days it is.
It’s not like I didn’t know humidity, either. I grew up in New York and certainly lived through many a sticky summer. But for the past 15 years I’ve lived in regions that were significantly drier – places like Hawaii, Phoenix and Southern California.
Being reintroduced to humidity is a brutal adjustment. I could remain indoors and comfortable, but the outdoor life of Austin is gorgeous, so I need to either suffer through the worst of the humidity or miss out on all of the awesome.
Generally, I can avoid sweating too profusely by pacing myself, sticking to the shady side of the street and jumping into neighbors’ pools at regular intervals. However, I’ve also been training for a marathon. The byproduct of training in the ‘city of moisture and humidity’ (I added another nickname to the Wikipedia identity!) is a pile of clothes that can harbor the scent of a thousand locker rooms. No mound of fabric is safe from the drenching. I’m pretty sure even my toenails sweat when I’m running. Have I mentioned anything about the sweating?
NOTE: Lying on cool tile tends to bring core temperature down, but my wife isn’t a huge fan of the sweat angels.
Clearly, this isn’t something I’d like to harbor in my home. My aromatic pile of refuse, er, laundry… can grow rapidly and I desperately need to combat the enemy. Allow me to introduce my knight in shining (and clean) armor – Tide PODS and their Child-Guard Tubs and Zip Bags.
Not only do they clean the worst I can throw at my clothes, but they always come out smelling magnificent. Nary a sign of the offensiveness it once sheltered. Tide’s upgraded formula now has better body soil removal technology, which is needed considering an average person sweats 1 liter a day – imagine what us marathon-running dads are producing? Not pretty. Not only that, but with training, work and parenting, having the laundry pacs makes doing the laundry insanely easy. Just toss one, two, or three in, depending on your load, and rest assured that it will return everything to its original condition.
Aside from the amazing scent and ability to bring our clothes back to life, one of the other perks are the safety features. We have child-proof cabinets and drawers, but on the off chance the liquid laundry pacs are left out – the tubs have a Child-Guard on them, making it difficult for little ones to fulfill their curious journeys (but us super dads know to keep them stored high, out of sight, and out of reach at all times, right!?). Because we’re safe AND sweaty. Safety first!
Now, as the days get warmer and the air gets heavier, I can feel confident that I’m continuing my training in clothes that smell fresh and feeling magnificently clean. What I can’t stand by is the confidence at the end of my daily runs – and you shouldn’t stand that close to me either.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a sponsored post on behalf of Proctor & Gamble Fabric Care and Tide, however, the sweat is all mine. For more information on Tide and their Child-Guard Tubs and Zip Bags, check them out HERE, on Facebook and Twitter.