You know you’re desperate when....

I find I'm doing more for myself now, as I've grown older. Not that I feel that I'm an old man but just that it has become more expedient for me to do more for myself. You don't have to wait on others to do things for you. Sometimes it works out quite well, and sometimes you find that in the process you've screwed things up. Case in point, I find that I'm doing more of my own laundry. I don't wait for my wife of forty-two years to do it for me any more. For one thing she is slowing down, doesn't like steps (the washer and drier are in the basement) and I'd like to help her out. I don't sort the clothes by white and colors because most clothes are colorfast and don't need that precaution (I've been caught short on that statement too).

Another problem occurred when Mrs. K. told me not to put the heavy bedspread in the washer, that we could that it to the Laundromat where they had commercial heavy-duty washers. What did I pay all that money for in a washer? Didn't mine say "heavy-duty" as well? I have learned that commercial grade and heavy-duty residential grade are not the same. The bedspread made it through the first time but not the second washing. It tore up a gear in the direct drive coupling. I wondered what I was going to do. You can't get a washer repairmen on a Saturday and in most cases the cost of the repairs comes very close to the price of a brand new washer on sale, including the ones with all the bells and whistles.

Soooo K took the washer apart, took out the damaged gear and decided to make a new one myself (remember it was a Saturday and the washer parts store was closed as well). It took about two hours and a lot of soul searching, cussing, and what have you but a came up with a reasonable facsimile. I put the washer back together flipped on the switch and it WORKED. It washed the clothes, wrung them out and made a soft, soon to become irritating noise for about two months (I must have made the gear parts slightly oversized). Lesson learned; wives do know what they are taking about. Had I paid attention to Mrs. K, I would have saved myself all that grief. Now the question is: do I take that bedspread up to the Laundromat or test out my new drive gear. Hmmm I wonder.

K.