A bit of dirty laundry

Talk about a teaser! Joanne left very early again this a.m. and since came back to retrieve a forgotten bag. The Realtors all must switch their systems to access the MLS, the tool used to list and sell properties industry-wide. They have a special "key" gizmo, more like a small cell phone that opens the lock boxes on the listed properties which then records the name of the agent showing the house, what time it is shown, how often the property is shown, etc. That is what she forgot to take with her this a.m. but it is okay, she managed without it.

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She is excited because her daughter and granddaughter arrive late tonight which is soooo cool! Most of their time is going to be spent doing "touristy" things but the weather is not in their favor. The cold weather has moved back in, coming out of the north, and of course, has to arrive right at Easter time/spring break, as the case might be. As I told Joanne, even though the weather will stink, they will still be away from work and school in Ohio, and spending time with their mom, grandmom Joanne, and grandpa/great-granddad Clyde in Florida!

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Joanne had thrown her sheets into the washer before leaving earlier and I offered to put them in the dryer so they are dry when she gets home later on. Besides being a good housemate and friend, I also had a small load to wash. Every time I do my wash I think of two of my in-laws, Barb and David. When it was only me living here, it was only me that made a mess and only me who cleaned it up. That would be to the exclusion of the housekeepers who came once a month, of course. A couple years ago I got a nice tax refund, unexpectedly, because I normally do not lend money to the government interest free. I used part of that overpayment money to replace three of my household appliances, which had come with the Unit. The washer/dryer had seen better days and I was glad to have shiny new ones in my laundry room. I also bought a new fridge with the freezer in a drawer on the bottom, easier to access for a short fat lady!

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Several decades ago when David was newly out of his family home and living on his own in an apartment, he had washer/dryer privileges from his landlords, who lived on the first floor of the home. Every single time he went to use the machines in the basement, they were draped in covers, sheets perhaps, and he had to remove the covers in order to access the machines. In between loads, he would go down there to switch them over and sure 'nuff, the covers were put back on. It was laughable....and it is not nice to laugh at Polish people who cherish their laundry tools!

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Well, I am no better! I wipe off my machines, removing the dripped laundry soap from whoever used the machine before me, using the cover of the soap bottle to rinse the inside of the lid and around the rim of the washer to make sure no fuzzies or grunge gathers in my relatively new equipment! I think of David and his covered machinery in the basement where he rented, and how we chuckled about the obsession with keeping them clean. It is me now!!

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The other day I changed the wash load for Joanne so I could put mine in the dryer and saw that she wears the exact same size and brand of bra that I do. For a fleeting moment, I thought about what would happen if we got them mixed up......fleeting is the key word here, because, for some reason or another, hers were still white! While I am obsessive about keeping the machinery clean and nice, I am totally opposite when it comes to laundry sorting!!!!! It has to stop somewhere, right??? Like you need to know this, my bras take on the color of whatever else is in the load with it, including once when I washed my red shoes.......

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Whenever I toss in a load of laundry, and when I remove my laundered stuff from the dryer, I think of Barb. When Harv and Barb were visiting here when we lived in Waterford Landing, I came through with the wash basket, about half of which was my nighties. Jokingly I said to Barb that I had to wash a load of nighties and she was just incredulous. "A load of nighties?? How many do you have???" Well, I have oodles of them, like to have a fresh one at least every other day, depending upon the weather, of course. She confessed to having worn her same night shirt, or dorm shirt, for several years, so much as that it had holes in it! I gave her a new nightshirt for her birthday the next year, not a moment too soon. Maybe she has developed a passion for nightwear like my sister, Lynn, and I have, but I do think about Barb nearly every time I take a load of clothes out of the dryer! Lynn likes to wear the more formal nightwear, even making some of the sleep sets herself, but mine are not quite that dressy. I must change clothes before going out for the day.....especially if I have worn the nightie when using the hair color!