I was at a neighborhood association by-law meeting the other night, (exciting, right?), and we, four women and one man, did our due diligence in looking over the original incorporation document, revisiting the recent revisions, and seeing what we had to do to finish the job. After a couple of hours of discussion of details, (not my forté), we ended up going right back to the original document because the process of changing the articles of incorporation involved the state and was just too complicated. In the long run, it would not be worth the effort.
Our gracious hostess brought out the treats, and I so regret I took no photos of her house, so I could share them here. She decorates with primitives and has a beautiful array of them. Her arrangements and reuse of items are incredible. Hopefully I can get photos another time and share. Example: an old divided soda crate as an on-the-counter spice rack.
Somehow the conversation turned to retirement. We heard the tale of a newly retired couple who had moved and downsized, and were enjoying their time together (or maybe not). The wife was, all of a sudden, made aware of all the things she did not know how to do. It was exemplified by the dishwasher. The now “stay at home man”, a man with too much time on his hands, decided that his spouse didn’t know how to, among other things, load the dishwasher. She is not alone.
I have often had my loading redone to the point that one evening I blurted out, “and don’t you dare rearrange the dishwasher.” There was probably a bit more going on than a dishwasher that evening.
We realized it seemed to be a common trait, in these cases, the man of the house, (and the man at our meeting table was strangely silent on this discussion) but not always.
The next story came from another female at the table. She was the one in her household to redo the dishwasher, because, (get this!) all the spoons had to be together, as did the knives, and the forks, all one kind of glasses in one row, all the cups in another row. You get the picture. And this comment along with the incredulity followed: The spoons would nest and not get clean.
I am curious. How many of you use those silverware slots to separate all the utensils? I’ve helped so many others, be they kids or friends, load dishes, and I honestly don’t think I have seen anyone else use those fold down silverware separators.
Not the case in our house. John read the instructions and concluded that the maker of the dishwasher and writer of the manual know what they are doing, and of course it makes sense that the silverware isn’t going to get clean unless it is separated. I shudder to think of prior dishwashers and all the food that touched our unclean, un-separated silverware, that self-same silverware that went into our mouths and the mouths of our children with un-separated silverware contaminated food. Another case of “what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger”, and we did live to tell the tale.
