The empty backyard

I saw a robin today. Perched on the edge of the copper birdbath, the one I haven't dumped the rainwater out of yet, he was having a hi-ho time getting a drink while getting his feet wet. Due to mosquitoes and other nasty flying things, I usually empty the bath immediately, but in the winter I think the risk is minimal. Anyway, why have it otherwise?

I saw the robin because I was standing at the back hall window watching for Little Girl. She's been gone nearly 4 weeks and I've about given up on her. It was a habit to stand at the window and see what she was up to or where she was sleeping, who had joined her in an uneasy truce on the patio. It's a habit I'll have to give up since it's obvious the backyard is not going to cough her up. She isn't going to materialize before my eyes.

Sunday is four weeks and on Sunday I'll stop feeding breakfast (dinner is already gone) to the hangers-on who have a home elsewhere and are merely mooching at my place. I tell them every morning: find Little Girl and the largesse contiinues. Must fall on deaf kitty-cat ears.

Or they can't hear me over the chomping.

On a brighter note, I found the two socks I had blithely accused the new dryer of eating. I should have known it wouldn't have shown bad manners so soon. They had fallen behind the dirty clothes basket in the closet. Sorry, dryer. The dryer rack came and I can hardly wait to try it out.

A new wash day

Last Wednesday my washing machine started a squeal-thump and then water poured equally into the drum and onto the floor. Well, not quite equally, more was in the drum, but it didn't sound/look good for the Sisk household. I got online and found that the basic service charge was going to be $55. My history with washer repairmen is that the part to fix said machine was not going to be on his truck. It would be ordered and he'd be back in a week.

That meant a week at the laundromat, shoving many quarters into washers and dryers because I wasn't bringing wet loads home to dry over hours and hours.

The internet being most useful (or most frustrating), I went to the washer's manufacturer site and looked up the serial number since I couldn't remember exactly how old the set was. They were rolled off the assembly lines in 1987. Hmmm. We wouldn't have bought them much later than that.

Twenty years old and I was on the cusp of easily spending a couple of hundred to get it fixed? No. I went in search of replacements.

This seemed to be a good time to go. They were all on sale. Most importantly, top-loaders were still available and since I didn't want the coming-mandated front loaders (and they were way more expensive--where's the sense in that?), I bought.

Believe it or not, washers and dryers have changed in 20 years. The drum on the washer is much, MUCH deeper. So far, it doesn't walk across the room as it spins since it leveled so nicely. The dryer drum is white so I can actually see what I'm leaving in there. (Typical dryer, it's already managed to lose half of two pair of socks.) It should have a drying rack (it'll be here shortly since I called and asked where it was) which I can put sweaters, shoes, etc., on and the drum will spin around it. Imagine!

So I've welcomed these new ones into the home. It's only our third pair in 35 years of marriage. The first were by Norge which we bought at Montgomery Ward's. They lasted about 12 years, but were called into the heaviest duty since I used real diapers with both boys. The second set by General Electric lasted 20. I have high hopes for the Maytags. After all, their repairman is the loneliest guy around, right?