I have had every-other-Friday off since I started to work at the Idaho National Laboratory. That’s always been a nice perk. Today is one of those Fridays. Nina works as an Ordinance Worker at the Idaho Falls Temple on Friday mornings, so she has to get up around 3:30 am and be out the door around 4:30 am. On the days that I’m working, I have to get up at 4:30 am and be out the door by 5:45 am. Every other Friday I usually sleep through Nina’s preparations and on the other Fridays I’m getting up as she is going out the door. Long paragraph for a very mundane subject….!!
The reason I’m blogging this is that after my blog was updated to the latest software, I couldn’t log in and I couldn’t post from my iPad. That’s been fixed after some fancy command-line Linux and MySQL work (done by me) so I was able to post from my MacBook. This is a test to verify that I can post from my iPad and that everything is in order.
The problem appears to have been a WordPress plugin that was no longer cooperating. I got them all uninstalled and then reinstalled a couple of plugins that are pretty essential (particularly the spam filter as my blog, like everyone else’s, gets hundreds of spammy comments every day and Akismet does a great job of filtering out more than 99% of them). A couple of others might prove to be useful, but in some cases the upgrades to the base WordPress software makes the need for a couple of plugins no longer necessary.
So, I’m doing laundry. That turned out to be a big of a saga all by itself. First, I couldn’t find the laundry detergent. It’s in the motor home or Nina’s car somewhere … somewhere quite safe. So, on the way to the laundromat I stopped at Albertson’s to pick up some detergent. I never really know how much detergent to use and Nina buys the big warehouse-sized containers and uses a scoop. It’s always a mystery to me; particularly since the scoop has graduations etched into it for a half-scoop, 3/4 scoop and a full-scoop. So I decided I’d buy the Tide Pods which should be already pre-measured and contain the right amount of detergent, whitener, and whatever else should be used.
I got to the laundromat, loaded a washer, got out the bag of pods, and discovered I’d bought the wrong stuff. I had “Tide Boost”, not “Tide Pods”. The Boost product is intended to be used with your regular detergent. That meant, I didn’t have any detergent. The machine on the wall where you can buy (expensive) small boxes of stuff is broken. All of the detergent slots wouldn’t accept any money. So, I unloaded the washer, put everything back in the car, and drove up the street to the nearest market, and studiously bought Tide Pods.
The washers are now going. One has started to spin. In another hour I might be done. It has taken literally the entire morning.
I remember washing days as a small child with my mother on Eastman Avenue in Soda Springs. She had a wringer washer and doing the wash was iterally an all-day process. She’s put the clothes in, fill the washer, run it, and then put the clothes through the wringer into a rinse tub. A second load would go into the same wash water. While it was washing, she’d stir the rinse water and put the clothes through the wringer again into a second tub of rinse water. After stirring them, she’d put them through the wringer the third time into a clothes basket to take outside and hang on the clothes line.
After they were hung up, she’d turn the rinse tubs around, dump the first rinse water from the first load, wring the washer clothes into what was the second rinse water and fill the second rinse tub with wather. After rinsing the the first tube, the clothes went through the ringer into the second tub, rinsed, and through the ringer into the second tub. Then after going through the ringer once again, they’d go outside to be hung on the line.
That got two loads of wash done. There was usually a third load, and sometimes a fourth, depending on what we’d been doing during the week. Dad’s work clothes came home particularly dirty and sometimes they had to go through the wash a couple of times. I remember his job changing and one of the perks was that Monsanto washed his bib overalls for him. Mother appreciated that!
The clothes would hang on the line for the rest of the day and into the evening when they’d be gathered in, folded, and those that didn’t need ironing put away.
Monday was wash day, Tuesday was ironing day. Mother had an ironing machine that had a long arm and most of the clothes needing ironing could be done on that while she sat at the machine. The rest had to be done standing at the ironing board.
The day we bought an automatic washer was a celebration day at our house. Grandfather Gillett worked at the Tooele Mercantile in Tooele, Utah. Finally dad and mother had saved enough money to buy the washing machine on Grandfather’s discount (and I’m sure he did some personal additional discounting … that was just how he was). Wash day was still on Monday and ironing day on Tuesday, but the heavy lift was gone along with the hours of standing over the washing machine and the two rinse tubs. Mother just shifted other house cleaning from later in the week to Mondays. That meant she was able to take on several additional piano students, a significant source of income for the family. So not only did the automatic washing machine save a lot of time, it also increased mother’s income by about 20%! I’m sure the machine paid for itself within a year. Enough so, that by the time I was in Junior High School we had purchased an electric dryer to go along with the washing machine. That also meant a few additional piano students!
Well, my wash is now in the dryer and in a few minutes it’ll be coming out. It’ll only take about 2 1/2 hours and it’ll all be done. No ironing is needed. It’s now a rare day when Nina gets out the ironing board anymore. Life is good!
Now, if this works right, you’ll be able to read this!
I haven’t ever used the “Featured Image” feature of the WordPress app on my iPad. So, I’ve featured a picture of baby pheasants from the Idaho State Fair. No idea how this’ll look….
