This is a grand occasion, here in the UAE, and we should have observed it with greater fanfare.

The Turning on of the Water Heater.

Note the date:

October 24.

Back on June 2, I noted the date when we turned off the water heater. From that day forward to this, the water coming to us through the pipes, here in our ground-floor apartment, would be warm enough/hot enough that we did not need to heat it, ever, for bathing purposes. It came out of the tap at something close to 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

Thus, for nine days short of five months, it was so hot in Abu Dhabi, in the UAE, that we didn’t need to heat our water. The sun and the earth were doing it for us.

But when we came back from vacation, three days ago, we noticed that the weather was only a bit warmer than we would want. Maybe only 15 degrees warmer than we would like, instead of 35.

That is when we decided that the water coming out of the shower head should be heated. Not that it was a “cold shower” in the literal sense, but it wasn’t quite a pleasant 98 degrees anymore.

Daytime temperatures remain in the 90s, but temperatures at night are now “plunging” into the middle 70s, just before dawn. And that chills our water supply just enough to make it vaguely uncomfortable to stand under the shower head.

Vaguely.

We could have held out another couple of weeks. To prove a point. To save on energy. To be green.

And, actually, we should made it a bigger ceremony, with both of us standing over the switch outside the bathroom, and ceremoniously throwing it from “off” to “on” — and seeing a red light go on. (Instead, Leah flipped it on when I wasn’t looking.)

Just as I noted back in June, the status of the water heater is a major turning point in the seasons of a region where “winter, spring, summer and fall” have little meaning.

We now have entered the cool season. People will be able to eat outside, and exercise outside, and wander around outside without turning into a soaked ball of sweat.

Turning on the water heater: A happy day.