Wednesday, July 26, 2006

821 Really Wednesday

Today I had lunch with the Gypsy. She has a lot of work to do this week, too, and since I was still feeling guilty about luring Piper away from his office, after a short lunch I dropped her off at her studio and left.

I went to the Suzuki dealership and picked up my registration. The floor mats and the book haven't come in yet - this could worry one about delays in getting parts. A two week wait for floormats? I've received eBay kimonos directly from Japan in less time.

Then I went searching for a larger cat carrier. Miss Thunderfoot will be going to kitty camp (that's what I tell her, anyway) while I'm in Orlando, and the two carriers I have are too small for her. I don't know what it is around here, but as soon as you locate a particular type of store, it disappears. I used to know where there were two large pet supply stores on the other side of the river, and neither of them is there now. I didn't happen to have a phone book in the car with me, so I wandered. Finally found a large (new!) pet shop in the next village down on this side of the river.

When I got home, I watched a video the Gypsy had given me, and a PBS show about the Andrea Doria, and then I decided to do some laundry.

Roman remarked last night that I seem to be having all kinds of bad luck lately.
The roof leaked, and had to be reshingled.
The damper in the fireplace broke and can't be closed.
Several trees fell down.
The minivan had two flat tires within two months.
The dehumidifier died.
The central air conditioning gave up the ghost.
The minivan got sick.

And now the washing machine won't fill with anything but very hot water. There's only a dribble of cold. Probably a glopped-up cold-water hose, same as the heat pump. Worse, the cold water shutoff valve in the washer is screwed up (probably full of mineral salts), so if you open the tap at the wall, the cold water dribbles - constantly. By the end of a wash cycle, the tub is overflowing. At the end of the spin cycle, the clothes are sopping. So after the laundry room got flooded a few times, I now just leave the cold water shut off at the wall. I don't want to use hot water for most of my clothes, and the rinse cycle (for all selections) is cold water only, so ... there's no rinse.

I've been getting around the problem by hooking up a hose to the utility sink next to the washer, and when the washer wants water, I stick the hose in and manually fill it for the wash and rinse cycles. Not a big deal. It works. Until you wander off and forget that the washer tub is filling. And flood the laundry room and the kitchen. Twice this evening. Not a big deal until you remember that the oriental rugs in the half-bath off the laundry room and in the kitchen are "village" rugs, made with vegetable dyes, and they will bleed and badly stain the floor if you don't get them up immediately. And find someplace that you can lay them out to dry, but where there's no danger of staining anything. Not so easy. Basement floor, I guess. And then you use a whole load of just-washed towels to sop up the water. Twice.

The second time the washer overflowed, I was standing there right next to it, hanging and folding stuff from the dryer. I didn't notice until my feet got wet.

Sigh.

No treadmill again tonight.

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