Update

The great dryerless experiment is over. Our heater wouldn't go on last week, so since we had an appliance person out here anyway, we had them fix the dryer. It is so nice to be able to turn the dryer on and trust that it will turn itself off! I haven't had that luxury for a few years. It definitely makes doing laundry easier.
I still like the smell of fresh air on my blankets, so those will be hung out to air when needed.

Chinese massage

Yesterday I had a big chunk of time to myself in preparation for the next several days when I'll have very little time to myself, as hubby is off on a well-deserved trip to the east coast. I spent some time doing grocery shopping, browsed at Goodwill, generally lollygagging, enjoying my time. At the end of the day, I found myself at Foot Finesse. Weeks earlier, a colleague had recommended this place for massage, and her description of her experience made me melt. A week ago, a few other friends told me they had been there--one loved it and the other didn't. I finally had an opportunity yesterday to sample their skills.

It was definitely different from any other massage I have had. There were several red leather reclining chairs in the dimly lit room, all of which were occupied. They led me to another room with three empty chairs. I sat on one, and the other two were filled shortly after my massage started. First my masseuse (a Chinese man with curly hair) reclined the chair, rolled up my pant legs above the knees and soaked my feet in hot water. While I was resting there, my scalp, face and ears were massaged. He took my feet out of the water, dried them and rubbed an oil on them, then covered them with a towel. He moved back to work my shoulders, hands and arms, using repeated, firm movements. He returned to my calves and feet, focusing on each toe, rubbing the bottoms of my feet in ways that hurt and felt good at the same time. He slapped my feet vigorously from several angles, then used a steamed towel to wipe the oil off. (This was my personal favorite.) He pressed my quadriceps in strategic points. Then he asked me to lie face down. He did some pretty heavy pushing on my back, stretching me diagonally from both sides. He actually CLIMBED UP and knelt on my butt, using the leverage to get even deeper into the muscles of my back. He used his knees to massage laterally from my spine through my hips. This part was a very new experience for me, and somewhat painful at the time. He climbed down and dropped my legs from a height several times, then told me I was all done.

I felt so good and relaxed. I will definitely be returning again soon, and now that I know better what to expect, I can really relax.

Fresh air

A few years ago, I woke in the middle of the night and heard the dryer running. This jolted me awake, and I leapt out of bed and dashed down to the basement, disturbing the sleeping dogs. The dryer had been running since sometime the previous day, and the clothes were toasty, even crispy. Suddenly I realized that I wasn't getting fatter--my clothes were shrinking. Well, maybe I was also getting fatter, but that's neither here nor there. The timer on the dryer was not working. Instead of spending the dough to get the dryer fixed, we've instead spent the dough on the cost of electricity for all the extra time the dryer runs when we forget to turn it off after the clothes are dry.

A few weeks ago, one of us went down to turn off the dryer, and it was already off. Or at least the tumbling part was off. The heat was still on. No timer, no fan, no motor--but at least it still heats!

At this juncture, we determined that continued use of the dryer would be unsafe as well as impractical. In the short term, we've decided to hang the laundry out to dry, and get the dryer fixed when the weather gets too cool for that. I actually enjoy this chore--it gets me outside, which I love, and the clothes smell great. Plus it saves electricity and money.

On the minus side, it takes a lot longer than just shoving the stuff in the dryer, and if I'm the only one home with my daughter, I have to be careful that she doesn't try to scald herself while I'm out there. Also, there's the dog poop. Dropping a sock on the ground becomes highly undesirable. I did try to get that all cleared away today, but there are years of unscooped poop on the ground, blended in with the soil, nurturing the wide variety of weeds.

Weeds are great for attracting butterflies, by the way! Especially when they grow out of control, resembling a scene from Platoon. I recently borrowed a book from the library about weeds, trying to determine what friendly species I had in my back yard. It turns out that not only can pokeberries be used for ink, but the entire pokeweed plant is highly poisonous. It also turns out those peppery-smelling vines with the pretty red berries are Deadly Nightshade. Both of these plants are great for birds and butterflies, but not so great for curious little girls. I spent several hours out there recently trying to remove the offending plants. When they come back in the spring, I'll be more hasty about removing them again.

Anyway, the weather is already getting cooler, so my laundry experiment may not last too much longer, but I'm enjoying it in the mean time--except for the sandpapery towels, that is.

Ouch!!

I've been laughing and crying at George W. Bush for the last eight years or so, but this bit from Letterman's show last night only made me laugh. I would embed the video, but I'm still working on how to do that. Until I get it figured out, please follow the link from the title.