Gone West

22nd December, 2021

If the weather oracle is correct, we have a lot of grey days in our future.

With a break, on January 3rd for “abundant sunshine” and then 17 more days of gloom.

This is a decidedly British type of winter.

And hardly a snowflake in sight.

They are all out on the West Coast this year.

For some reason I find disrupted weather patterns to be disturbing. Intellectually, there is probably cause .

That’s not what I mean, though. I just feel enervated, what my mother would have called “touchy”.

Though perhaps it can be attributed at the moment to goings on in the laundry room….

For some time now, we have been complaining about our dryer that doesn’t dry.

After looking at prices for a replacement, Grant decided maybe a little maintenance might resuscitate old Hal.

Why is it that when men decide on a project, the whole house is brought to a standstill and chaos takes over?

Not so long ago, in the early stages of tick fever, I decided the Dyson vacuum needed to be cleaned.

It has many detachable parts which I unscrewed and laid aside. And after a thorough job, I put it all back together again, perfectly. By myself, without drama.

Alright, I concede that a clothes dryer is a larger and more cumbersome device. Though apparently with fewer parts.

Maybe the fact that I am keeping my head down and trying not to get involved says more about my past experiences than it does about Grant’s attempts to solve our problem.

My dad was pretty good at fixing things, but of patience he had a dearth and the air could turn quite blue if things didn’t go well.

Then there was my uncle who needed libations to keep himself going during projects. That was a whole other kind of drama.

Bad language and insults don’t worry me. It’s the angry raised voices that make me cringe.

However, judging by “noises off”, attempts to improve Hal the dryer’s performance have been abandoned.

Of course “in the old days”, mother didn’t have a washer or dryer and in my first two apartments I managed without myself. It can be done!

But we do like to keep the cat blankets all fluffed up.

2 thoughts on “Gone West

  1. I know … we have also “survived” the first 10 years of our married life without a dryer … but now (or in winter at least), it feels the dryer is as important as the kettle 😊. And I’m sure the cats appreciate (in their own way), their fluffy blankets!

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