(Mostly Odd) Odds and Ends

I think I need to get out more . . .

I went to a laundramat yesterday.  I have some comforters, pillows, and quilts that require a larger washing machine than mine, so when I feel it's time for them to be cleaned I take them to a local laundramat to use the big triple load washers.  I usually go to a large, quiet, clean laundramat on 10th Street.

But there is one closer to my house, and yesterday I decided I'd just run them down there.  I took a book along with me to keep me occupied.  When I pulled into the parking lot I noticed there were no other cars there, which I thought might be a nice sign.  I parked right in front of one of the doors, and I noticed this interesting sign:  No Shoes, No Shirt, No Pets, No Service.  Okaaay.  Did that mean that if I didn't have a pet with me I would get no service? 

When I went inside I realized that no vehicles in the parking lot didn't necessarily mean no customers inside.  There was a lady at one end with about a week's (or two) worth of laundry that she was sorting in the middle of the floor.  She would pick a few items out of her pile, drop them into one washer or another, and then go back for more.  This didn't bother me personally until I discovered I didn't have enough quarters for the machine and had to change a couple of bills in the bill changer.  Her sorting was taking place right in front of the bill changer.  I said excuse me, I need to get to the bill changer, and she never even looked up at me, so I just stepped over her things.  There was no attendant, by the way.  There used to be a counter in the front where an attendant would take in clothes for drop-off service, but that is gone now. 

There was also a little girl seated at a round plastic table, having a tea party with several stuffed toys, with whom she kept up a conversation the whole time I was there.  Very cute.  Her brother, about 11 years old, was emptying washers.  There was a man with them, apparently the boy's step-dad or mother's significant other from the way they spoke with one another.  The boy used unusual words like "extract", as in, "This machine didn't extract all the water."  The man, who honestly did look like he fell off a turnip truck, said, "What??"  And the boy kept saying, "This machine didn't extract all the water."  After repeating this about three times the man said, "What the h--- does THAT mean?"  And the boy said, "It didn't get all the water out!"  At other times the man would announce his feelings in a very loud voice, while looking around to make sure that sorting-lady and I were paying attention, about having to be there doing laundry.  He couldn't BELIEVE he was spending his afternoon doing laundry!  When their mother got back, HE was going out for a smoke!  He couldn't imagine where she was, anyway!  She should have been back by now!  Next time SHE was going to stay there and do the laundry!  It looked to me like the boy was doing it all, anyway.

Then there was the older couple who came in while my things were drying.  The older man couldn't hear anything the woman was saying, so she repeated everything she said, but not any louder or more clearly than she'd said them the first time.  And her voice!  I have no idea how to describe it.  Several months ago Scalzi featured a video of some cop show where the woman arrested had a very screeching, country-accented, hoarse-from-smoking-all-her-life voice that was practically unintelligible, and that is what this woman sounded like.

I never did read any of my book.

When I left, sorting-lady still had four dryers and three washers going, and there was still a big quilt on the floor in front of the change machine.

Next time I'm going to the big laundramat.

 

Ever Have That Feeling?

I talked with my mother by phone yesterday.  About halfway through her first sentence she paused and demanded, "Am I talking into this thing right??"

She said for some reason, all of a sudden as she was talking she just had this feeling that she had the phone upside down or something.  It just didn't feel right.  She said, "I've been really feeling old lately."  I said, "Well, you ARE  84 years old, although I've always felt that we (the kids) were aging faster than you."  And she said, "No, I've REALLY been aging lately.  I do the dumbest things!  This morning I said I was in the mood for a sweet potato pie, so I went and dug out the recipe.  Then when I was getting the ingredients together I glanced at the recipe and thought, 'well, that's not for sweet potato pie, that's a pumpkin pie!'.  I was starting to put it back when I glanced at it again, and sure enough it said 'sweet potato pie'.  I don't know why I thought it was pumpkin for a second!"  I say, she's 84 years old, was married for 55 years, and raised seven kids.  If she gets a bit confused now and then, well, she's due.  I still say she's in better shape physically and mentally than most of us!

 

Dig a little deeper . . .

Gas, as of this afternoon, is now $3.06 a gallon!

 

A Good Book . . .

I just finished the funniest book.  It is called ALICE, I THINK and was published in 2003, written by a lady named Susan Juby.  She writes with wit and wry humour.  This was her first novel, so I'm off to look her up to see if she did any more.  If you look for it in your library you'll find it in the Young Adult section.

 

 

Tags: Alice I Think, Susan Juby