The day began with what might have been my first ever Honey Do item. I don’t keep track of such things, but this could be that mysterious piece of trivia that will become vitally important in 48 years.
The Yankee was out of town for a family trip and she asked me to make an appliance change while she was gone.
The dryer on one set is getting a bit sluggish and, in the interests of national security and energy bills, the list was handed down, “Would you mind swapping out the washer and dryer while my car is out of the way, giving you room to maneuver?” We have two sets. (Are you surprised? Don’t you have a backup?) But, really, this wasn’t merely an appliance change. This was a change of the set, because it wouldn’t do to have a cream washing machine operating next to a white dryer. There must be uniformity.
I did not mind, and so I did that. Up into the attic I went to retrieve the hand trucks. Cleaned everything out of the way in the laundry room. Disconnected the washer and carted it into the garage.
Disconnected the dryer, slid it over and then hauled it through the door into the garage. I made the baseball’s bullpen motion to no one in particular, touching right hand to left elbow and moved the boxes off the washer and dryer that were about to go into the game.
Then I carried them, one by one, into the laundry room thinking, Ha! Now I can correct the mistake I made the day we moved! I can put the washer on the left and the dryer on the right, like it is supposed to be!
And I did that, right up to the point where I realized that the washer had been on the right for a reason. Has to do with the exhaust hose for the dryer and a space issue that creates.
So the dryer went back into the garage, and now I’m just playing Tetris. The washing machine went to the right side, the dryer was inched into the space on the left. Hoses were connected. Things were fumbled. Water was dripped. I came to the stunning realization that hoping behind the washer in the narrowest of spaces with a wire shelf inches above your head is not a good idea.
There was a small leak in the washing machine’s supply hoses. I uttered oaths at the manager who called in this lefty. This guy was going to ruin everything!
When I’d tightened those things for all they were worth, I decided to then check to be sure that hot was connected to hot and cold was going to cold. Dodged a bullet there.
And then for the biggest test of all. The towel that has been collecting dust and water went into the machine and was washed in short order.
Stephen visited today. Haven’t spent that much time with him in several years. We had a burger for lunch, walked around campus enjoying the first beautiful spring-like day of the year. Ventured into Beard-Eaves and ran suicides on the old hardwood. (OK, we talked about doing it. As neither of us had gym shoes on, we found a convenient excuse.)
The baseball team was practicing across the road at Plainsman Park. We walked in and watched the last few innings of a scrimmage there.
And then we went back to my place and noticed that the TiVo had recorded the Auburn basketball game. That’s a not-good team, but we started watching it out of morbid curiosity. Before long the Tigers had a little lead over South Carolina and as the game progressed they kept that lead until it become possible that they might win. And then it looked probably and, finally, Auburn won an SEC basketball game for the first time this year. Some had predicted they wouldn’t pick up a conference victory.
Stephen left for dinner with his in-laws. I stayed in for barbecue chicken and to wrap up the Robin Hood series. One of the good guys, Allan A Dale, died, and the Sheriff, the main bad guy reappeared from the dead. The final fight featuring everyone that was still alive in the series began.
During that was the biggest problem. Robin, Much and Guy, two of our heroes, and one bad-guy-turned-decent-by-circumstance found themselves trapped in a room that became filled from above by Styrofoam pellets or aquarium rocks or Tribbles. It was hard to tell. They were finally rescued by their friends through a side door. Out spilled the unnamed nitrogen pellets of doom and the three victims.
The first thing Robin’s new love interest does?
Mouth-to-mouth? An 11th Century peasant beat science to the technique by about 800 years. I’d watched 38 of the 39 episodes of this show and almost stopped right there.
And then the final personal duels, a little more exposition and Robin got knifed in the neck. It was but a flesh wound, but the knife was spiked with medieval drugs. He wandered off and died. Roll credits!
Just checked on that towel. It dried in only one cycle. We’ve now made our home that much greener.
