Thursday 3 April 2014

Sock It To Me


Summer means a lot of things to a lot of people. Two months of school holidays. Road trips. Campfire s’mores. Sailing. Being awakened at 3:30 a.m. by annoyingly cheerful birdsong. A quieter pace at the office. Fresh fruit and outdoor markets. Buskers on street corners. Music festivals and baseball games. Mindless romance over meaty high fantasy. Top 40 radio over CBC 2. Comic book superheroes over true life adaptations at the movies. Long sunny days and short starry nights.

Ice cream.

I decided last laundry day that my favourite summer thing is no socks in the wash. Hand-fluffing those suckers between the washer and dryer is time-consuming, occasionally frustrating and, on a cold rainy afternoon, finger-bone-numbing. It’s worse in winter to be sure, but now that spring has arrived, my hankering for a sock-free summer is as acute as a parched throat anticipating lemonade.

Perhaps I should explain.

In gleeful defiance of my envisioning power, the laundry facility is located downstairs from our suite, in its own room off the back deck, ergo the “cold rainy” … er … I want to say complaint, but Ter spent a year of Sunday mornings at a laundromat because things hadn’t worked to plan where we were, so having a washer/dryer on the property where we are is a bonus by comparison, so let’s just call it an minor inconvenience. In summer, it’s great. I visit with the neighbours and play with the house dog, and catch the sun through the open door while I’m sorting the whites from the colours, but in dodgy weather, it’s a tad more challenging because of the gosh-darned socks. They won’t dry properly if I don’t fluff ’em en route from the washer, so precious time is spent handling each cold and clammy item when I’m sure a wiser individual would simply toss them as is into the drum and add an extra dime to the drying time.

Yes, I’m whining. For some reason, sock-fluffing was a pain last week and I began to think fondly of my sandals. Summer won’t be here for another three months, but I see socks becoming toys for the wee bears in the very near future …



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