Fog Machine Bath Tub

As many of you know, Jake manages the Plasma Center here in Rexburg. The company processes large quantities of plasma that people come in and donate. [Plasma; the yellow-colored liquid component of blood, in which blood cells are suspended] It is used for medicines and all sorts of stuff. In order to preserve the plasma, they keep it in very large freezers. I mean these things take the place of entire walls. And let's not forget to mention how incredibly cold they are! So cold that the mechanics and parts often freeze and stop working. So cold that I could barely breathe when I stepped inside. So cold that Jake got frostbite on his ears from working in there too long one day. Anway, you get the idea - BIG, COLD, freezers.

Every once in a while when the freezer components freeze or something else goes wrong, the temperature starts rising. If it doesn't stay below a certain degree then the plasma goes bad. Since the freezers hold A LOT of plasma at once - this temperature thing is a big deal. The freezers are carefully monitored and there is an alarm when the degree changes too much.

And how do they solve the rise in temperature problem? If they can't fix the freezer immediately --- say they need to order a new part, or can't get in touch with the fix it man --- then then start stuffing the freezer with dry ice. That's right, dry ice. It keeps the temperature cold enough to preserve the plasma until they can transfer it all to another freezer or fix the problem.

All right, now that you have a little background on the subject, here's the really reason for my blog post. Yesterday when Jake came home from work he brought with him a small bag of dry ice. I just looked at him like WHAT HUH? He told me that it was a little bit of left over and he didn't know what to do with it. He said he was going to just throw it out in our field or something but was afraid the cats would get curious and lick it. So his next idea was to put chunks of it in the toilet - but I just didn't think that was the best plan. He put a few small pieces in the toilet and it was kind of funny to watch it bubble --- like someone had seriously destroyed the bathroom with toxic droppings :) hahaha. The only other option was to wash it away in the bath tub. And so it began...


Mix dry ice with water and the mist starts spreading...


With the faucet running onto the ice, the steam was just POURING over the bathtub. I saw it streaming out from under the door and gradually traveling across the floor to the kitchen and bedrooms. It looked way cool and so I did the "Slide-across-the-floor- in-my-socks" routine. The mist would move as I went through it and then swirl around my feet behind me. I was having way too much fun, and of course Jake was in there creating more steam. He would shut the door until it built up a ton, and then open it and let it all disperse in one big cloud. After a while the dry ice gave out and dissipated - leaving us with ridiculously wet floors and damp walls..... oops :)

With infinite access to dry ice you would think we would play with it more often, but I guess we're too grown up for such things ---- except on rare occasions. mwa haha.