Friday Morning in Las Vegas

It's a chilly
Friday morning in Las Vegas
rain and mountains snow predicted.

This is a good day to do laundry and write. I like taking my pen and paper journal with me to the laundromat because the people inspire me. I meet all sorts of interesting people when I do laundry, which is one of the reasons I like to go to the laundromat. The other reason is that it is easier for me to put my clothes in my car and drive to the laundromat then it is to push the laundry/grocery cart across the street to the laundry room. Also, the washers and dryers in the laundromat are newer and, therefore, work better then the machines in the laundry room.

Success Saturday: At the end of an interesting week.

It is the end of an interesting and successful week. On Wednesday, I went grocery shopping. I managed to get two blog entries out of that excursion. One was a normal blog entry about what happened, but the second was a flash fiction entry using the excursion as a basis for the response to a prompt. On Friday, I successfully did two months worth of laundry. I did not do laundry in January because I had to get the tag for my car.

The laundromat I went to is new. The washers and dryers are new. They do not use quarters, but instead you put bills or a credit card in a machine which gives you a debit cart to operate the washer and the dryers. I will go back to this laundromat again because I do not have to lug rolls of quarters in my purse. It is difficult enough for me to do laundry without having to lug two or three rolls of quarters around. I have not used my experience at the new laundromat in a story or poem. I will in the near future.

Monday Matters: A Good End to March 2014

March is going out like a lion. On Sunday, March 30, the wind woke me up scattering trash and palm fronds across the neighborhood, This morning when I went to the gym the wind was not blowing hard, but an hour later the wind had increased by two or three miles per hour,  perhaps more. By the time I drove home, seven or eight minutes later, it had increased even more. As I look out the window, I see it has increased another four or five miles per hour.

Since I do not plan an outing this afternoon, it does not matter how fast the wind blows. I have several pieces of writing to finish and I need to do some more reviews on writing.com, which makes going out again today difficult. Tomorrow, I plan to do a load of laundry and go to the gym for about an hour. Wednesday morning I have an exercise class and in the afternoon my grief counseling group meets (yes, I am still going to grief counseling because my mother's death hit me really hard). Thursday I have to do another load of laundry (unless I change my mind and do two loads on Tuesday) and then an hour at the gym. I also need to pay my rent on Thursday, so I am not sure how much writing I will accomplish that day.

Today I have to balance my books and sit up my April goals spreadsheet. It is a good thing I picked up food at Lutheran Social Services on Friday, March 28, because now I have stuff I can just pop in the microwave and reheat for my lunch and dinner. I suppose I should check the weather forecast for the rest of the week because I do not want to be surprised by rain or strong gust of wind when I am driving across Las Vegas.

Success Saturday: Little Successes

It's been an interesting week full of small success and little victories. Friday afternoon, I went to the laundromat with a load of clothes. I decided that lugging the baskets out to the car and into the laundromat is a bit much. I now take only one load at a time, which means that I always have another load or  two laundry waiting to go. Since I don't have an automatic washer or dryer in my apartment so that I can do a load of laundry everyday I will accept the situation as it is for now.

Laundry
a thankless
and never ending task.

Accepting the laundry situation is one of the small victories I can celebrate this week. One of my little success is writing my first Pi poem; it was fifteen lines about pie. It was a good poem and I enjoyed writing it, so that is another victory I can celebrate this week. Perhaps I should write a Pi poem about doing laundry, the laundromat, or laundry day.

Writing poems
line by line
creating metaphors
and similes;
a good way
to spend the day.

Tying up loose ends Saturday: Another week past

Another week past

With some success and failures

Saturday at last

Saturday seems a good day to tie up some loose ends, at least around the house. I know that I can accomplish just so much in a twenty-four hour period and I have to sleep sometime. Today, I need to put the clothes on the drying rack away, finish washing my clothes, and another load of sheets. I also want to try a homemade bug trap.

Now to the writing project I have to work on. I have the writing.com fantasy newsletter to finish and check four website I usually do not check on Saturday or Sunday, but since I did not check them yesterday, I have to check them today. In addition, the things I usually do on Saturday, with one addition.

Mom will no longer have a Personal Care Assistant coming in on the weekend, so I have to add making her bed to the list. This should not be a problem since I only have to do is remove the sheet from her bed if they need changing and put fresh sheets on. I usually fix Mom’s meals on the weekend anyway.

Mundane Monday: Writing reviews and laundry

I am taking a few minutes between reading and reviewing on writing.com and doing laundry. Laundry is one of the things that I can accomplish while doing something else. This is why I like having a working washing machine in the house.

Since I do not have a laptop or tablet computer, when I read and review or do anything else I have to be at home. I probably need to get a laptop or some type of tablet computer, so that I am not stuck at home. All though, since most of what I do when I leave the house is grocery shopping, doctor’s appointments, and paying bills; I am not sure that a portable computer will do me any good. The only places I could use a tablet computer would be the doctor’s office and since I usually do not have to wait, long to see the doctor buy a tablet computer may not help me when I work online.

I live in Las Vegas. It gets too hot in summer to leave a computer or any other technical equipment in the car. I could not take the computer or tablet with me when I go to the grocery story or pay bills. I think I just talked myself out of a tablet computer. I am going to post this now and get back to reviewing.

I enjoy doing laundry now

I enjoy laundry
I sit at the computer
The washer echoes

I can write and do laundry at the same time. The washing machine does not overflow in the spin cycle, so I do not have to worry about water in my living room. I can compose poetry or write a story while my clothes wash.

I can look out the living room window and watch the sky transform from blue to white and then to black as the sun sets. I listen to the washing machine agitate the clothes. I listen for it to change from the wash cycle to the rinse cycle. I know when the clothes are finished and then I can take them out of the machine and hang them on the drying rack.

An electric clothes dryer would be nice because then I would not have to hang my sheets over chairs to dry. That is a minor inconvenience, if I took the clothes to the laundromat I would have a dryer, but then I would not have the luxury of sitting at the computer writing while my clothes washed and dried. Eventually, I will get a dryer, but for now I will wash the clothes and then hang them on a drying rack or over the furniture to dry.

December 1, 2011

That is not a creative title, but it is the best I can think of right now. Winter finally came to Las Vegas with high wind warnings in the valley and winter storm warning in the mountains.

Mom went to the daycare center about 8:30 AM and came home around 4:00 PM. Her mood was good when she arrived home, so I am sure she had a good day. She is not having a good night. For the last couple of hours I have gone back and forth to her room attempting to calm her enough for her to go to sleep.

It is going to be a long night. I doubt I will get any sleep, which is all right since I did not plan to leave the house on Friday. I intend to do more laundry. I did two or three loads today and hung them on the line. The clothes dried despite the cloud cover. Eventually I will catch up on the laundry.

I have a lot of writing and housework to do this weekend. I can write while the clothes are washing. There are several minutes between the wash cycle and the rinse cycle. I have to watch this close so that I can add fabric softener when the clothes rinse. At least, I am getting my exercise.

Laundry and Writing

Last week a plumber finally fixed the pipes behind the washer. He put a sleeve on the drainpipe to keep it from overflowing. I have washed five or six loads of laundry since. If I am careful, I can write and do laundry at the same time.

I have to watch the cycles so that I can put the fabric softener in during the rinse cycle. It just dawned on me that I may be able to put the fabric softener in the container at the beginning of the wash cycle. I will have to find the manual for the washing machine and read the directions. It has been so long since I could use the washing machine at home that I have forgotten when I put the fabric softener in the washer.

Getting up from the computer and going into the kitchen (that is where my washing machine is located) is a good way to get exercise. It also helps in writing because it helps my creativity and keeps me from being stuck in one place in a story.

The one disadvantage about doing laundry at home is hanging the cloths on the line. I do not have a dryer, so I have to hang my cloths outside. In fall and winter, this means I have to get the cloths washed in the morning so that they have the rest of the day to dry. Oh well, no situation is perfect and imperfection helps creativity and produces ideas for poems and stories.

Tuesday is Laundry Day

I think we should declare the second Tuesday in every month a holiday called Laundry Day. To celebrate this day, everyone who does laundry at least once a month should be exempt from doing laundry that day. In addition, people who do not do any laundry at all should have to do their own laundry and the laundry of everyone in the household who is exempt from doing laundry that day.

Now, you may ask, where did I get this idea? I did three baskets of laundry today and I still have four baskets to wash. Why did I wash only three baskets when I have seven baskets full of dirty cloths? Because three baskets of laundry in one day is my physical limit, at least it was until today. Going to the laundromat wore me out and did not have the energy to fold the sheets. I have three baskets of clean cloths waiting in the car for me to lug them into the house.

From now on, my limit is two baskets of laundry; especially when one of those baskets is sheets and I have to stop at a store either before or after I go to the laundromat. Perhaps tomorrow, instead of doing laundry and going to the grocery store I will just got to the store. I will have to see how I feel after I bring the laundry in and fold the sheets.

Laundromat Poem

They wait
mouths slightly agape
for our dirty laundry.

They consume
grain by grain
the soil of our mundane
existence.

Never expecting
thanks.

A warm day in Las Vegas

It's warm out today. Some would call it hot. Perhaps it is, I don't know the prediction for today's temperature. I do know that when I went out to take the cloths off the line, I broke a sweat, cloths felt as if I had just taken them out of an electric dryer and the cloths pins were hot.

Hanging cloths out brings back memories of my grandmother. Grandma Newland hang her cloths out. Even after electric washers and dryers appeared on the market, Grandma still hung her cloths out. Grandpa bought her an automatic washer, but not a dryer. If Grandma had wanted an electric cloths dryer, Grandpa would have bought it for her.

Grandma enjoyed hanging cloths out because she liked the smell of cloths right off the line. I enjoy the smell of cloths dried outside; I just can't seem to get them as soft as Grandma could. I use fabric softener in the washer during he rinse cycle. I don't know what the problem is; perhaps cloths today are intended to be dried in an automatic dryer.

Laundry on the line
I remember Grandma on
laundry day laughing.

Sunday, the beginning of a new week

It's Sunday and the beginning of a new week. I have a dozen things to do around the house and online. I decided not to do laundry today instead I will wait until Monday morning, do a load of laundry and then hang it out. I have only half a load in the washer now so I have to find more cloths to go in before I can wash the cloths.

It's interesting before the dryer went out we were doing three or four loads a day. Now that we have to hang the cloth outside on a cloths line, we only do one or two loads a day. Some days, like today, we don't any laundry and we still have enough clean cloths to last. The only difference is lack of an automatic dryer in the house. I don't see how that makes much difference, but it does.

Hexagon cloths line
arms folded over its head
waiting for wet cloths.

I looked like rain today in Las Vegas

It looked like rain today in Las Vegas, so I did not do laundry. Since I have to hang the cloths outside, it did not seem like a good idea. It did not rain, but the sky was cloudy all day. I checked the weather report that comes to my e-mail box and there were storm warnings.

I saw lightning in the southwest last night before I went to bed, but I have not heard thunder today. All I did today was finish writing the fantasy newsletter and submit it. Since that is accomplished, my next project is to catch up on some writing projects.

Sunday Morning in Las Vegas

It's Sunday, March 29, I am sipping my first cup of coffee and listening to the dryer. I look out my living room window and see a cloud covered sky. My mother is still asleep, but I'm going to have to wake her up so she can take her medication and get her day started.

I don't like waking Mom up before the coffee is brewed and at least one load of cloths is drying. The only thing we have to do today is early vote. The primary election is scheduled for Tuesday, April 7, and I will be working the polls so I have to early vote. Mom goes along with me to early vote as well.

I like the idea of early voting, therefore, when it's available I early vote whether I'm working the polls or not. I haven't investigated to see if it increases voter turnout. I sure it does or the election department wouldn't give that option to people. Working the election polls is an interesting job because you meet many wonderful people.

One interesting advantage about working an election, whether it's a primary or general election, is seeing the look of joy on a young person's face when he or she comes in to vote for the first time. I don't think I've written a poem about working the polls maybe I need to do that this year. After all, the primary election is in April and April is National Poetry Month.

Morning is Laundry Time

Morning is time to do laundry for the day. I can remember my grandmother doing laundry once a week; her laundry day was on Thursday, Friday or Saturday. The day of the week she did laundry depended on what the weekend plans. If the following weekend was a three-day weekend, like Labor Day, then she did laundry on Thursday. That way she had the dirty cloths washed, dried and put away before we left for "The Lake" on Friday evening.

If grandpa planned an ordinary weekend trip to "The Lake", she did laundry or as she called it "The Washing" on Friday. If there were no weekend plans then Saturday was laundry day. The interesting thing is that grandma did laundry once a week for six or seven people. There are only two people in my household and we do laundry every day.

I have written several laundry rants, so I am not going to do that this morning. This morning I am attempting to brainstorm concerning memories of my grandmother doing laundry. I am going to write about laundry day memories. I have several poems about my grandparents and I thought it would be nice to put them all in a chapbook and give copies to my brothers and sister. A chapbook of family poems and memories would make a good gift birthday or anniversary gift.

Anyway, I have several poems about grandma and grandpa, but not enough to make up a chapbook. I need to write a few more, so I thought something about laundry day. I could also ask my sibling and my mother what memories they have concerning my grandparents and include them. The good thing about being a writer is that you do not have to spend a lot of money on gifts for family when you have pleasant memories that you can put down on paper.