Peaceful evening

Monday, 9:38 pm

By Kate

Jun

25

2007

After a day filled with the usual gotta do stuff and some oughta do stuff, I finally sat down to relax and think about the good feeling knowing that I don’t have to face some of the oughta do stuff tomorrow. Laundry for one.

While I suffer an involuntary cringe at the idea of all the electricity the washer uses, I’m really not prepared to go to the extreme of hand washing everything. Just not going to happen any time soon. But I do get a real kick out of shunning the dryer and hanging laundry outside to dry.

I don’t even have a clothesline to speak of. I’ve talked about it, but I just don’t have the room for a permanent sort of arrangement in my back yard. So, I decided to try a folding wooden laundry rack out on the deck and it does just fine. I can get almost an entire load of laundry hanging on one and everything dries within a couple of hours...less if there is a breeze. I’m also thinking of attaching a line between two deck railings that can be put up and taken down as the need dictates.

I suspect that would be an option for some folks who live in neighborhoods that don’t approve of clotheslines. As for the folding ones, I don’t see how anyone could object to that unless they were were looking hard for something to complain about. And those kinds of people do exist. I once had a neighbor who, I am sure, spent the better part of her day with her binoculars trained on my back yard just in case I did something “against the rules” and, if I did, she’d jump in her car and knock on my door three minutes later. Once I figured out what she spent her time doing, I really went out of my way to do things to antagonize her so she’d run over to complain. She never did figure out that I was messing with her head, but I guess it gave her something to do.

Anyway. My laundry is all dry and folded and it smells so fresh. Not perfumey...but outdoorsy. It’s a different kind of clean fresh smell.

Now, I’m just hanging around for the next little while until time to go pick the lad up from his 12 hour workday. I’m listening to the crickets chirp outside and I’ve watched a couple of lightning bugs fly past the back door. They are the first ones I’ve seen this summer. It’s a peaceful evening here.