wash, dry, fold: the dementia continues

December 22, 2001

Adopt these cats at Merrimack River Feline Rescue Society

Today's Reading

This Year's Reading
2001 Book List

Photos:

Ivy

Ribbons

Beau

Marty

Cuddles

Princess

Savannah was adopted and hasn't been returned yet! She must have finally found the right match for her. Sandy must be thrilled to have no competition for the big yellow bucket, but right now he's asleep in his cage and I doubt he would rouse himself even for donuts.

Regan, Sid's best friend, is curled up in his cage with him. In his litter box. This is a cozy scene until Sid wants to use the litter box and Regan hisses at him. She takes a swipe at him and he swipes back. She refuses to yield the litter box. Ann takes Regan's litter box from her cage and puts it in Sid's. This fails to satisfy Sid, who goes after Regan again. Finally they settle down each to their own litter box. I suggest to Ann that when they're really calmed down maybe Regan should go back to her own cage.

Adopters are all over the place. Someone is interested in Trinity for her 85 year old mother in law. I explain that we strongly prefer that the person the cat is going to live with meet the cat first. In fact we insist on it. I know an 85 year old can't make the stairs -heck I can barely make the stairs- and assure her that when the mother in law comes we'll bring Trinity downstairs to the parking lot for her to meet. Not ideal, but it'll work.

Ann tells me somebody is interested in Ringo and that Ringo actually like them! He's such a fraidy cat that anybody he takes a liking to must be THE ONE.

The bleach fairy has visited and left two gallons on the back steps. I lug them upstairs and put them in the laundry room. Two gallon jugs of bleach weigh about as much as a load of wet laundry. Either that or I am getting weak in my demented old age. Well that and lack of caffeine.

How have I gotten to mid-afternoon without having a cup of coffee? I forgot. It's that dementia again. Actually it's more of that unmanageability I spoke of. While missing appointments and juggling schedules, I have failed to do laundry. The two huge bags of wash on the bedroom floor mock me. They cut through my denial. Yup, my life is unmanageable all right. So this morning I vowed to deal with the laundry crisis. I focused on the laundry crisis to the exclusion of breakfast and coffee. Cleancraft is closed for the 4-day weekend. I think about hauling the laundry to the Village Tub in Newburyport and loading up a half dozen washers while I photograph the cats. Then I remember seeing a laundromat in Lawrence, right nearby (I live perilously close to Lawrence remember - anybody who thinks this end of North Andover is a tony suburb should get real). I pack it all up and head over in the general direction of this place. It turns out to be like 3 minutes away and to have wash, dry, fold service. Saved by the Happy Time Laundry! And unlike Cleancraft where wash, dry, fold takes three days, these guys will have my 44 pounds of laundry ready at 5:30. Yippee!

So I swing by Fowle's for that much needed coffee after photographing cats, and head back toward home and Happy Time Laundry to pick up those oodles of clean clothes. Well, it's 5:30 and they're smack in the middle of drying and folding. They tell me to come back in a little while. This is still way better than if I had asked Cleancraft to do wash, dry, fold so I smile and head for the grocery store to get something to bring to La Madre's for the BiB arrival and tree trimming festivities. I decide baklava would be good as Donald and Michael are bringing grape leaves. I check out with my cart load of groceries and head back to Happy Time Laundry, where my laundry awaits all folded and bagged. To think, I could have done this two weeks ago had I but known such a service existed in my neighborhood.

I put away the perishable groceries and leave everything else 'til after supper 'cause I'm way hungry. I begin to put away the nonperishable groceries. Uh oh! Where's the baklava? And where are the tomatoes? I know I bought baklava and tomatoes. I leap into the car, thinking I have the receipt in my pocket, and return to the grocery store in search of my tomatoes and baklava. The baklava was expensive so I'd darn well better find it. The register I checked out at is closed. There's nothing there. I explain my plight to the assistant manager who asks to see my receipt. I pull out the receipt from Happy Time Laundry. Uh oh!

I leap into the car again, speed home, find the receipt on the table, speed back to the grocery store and show it to them. The baklava rang up as an apple tart (which is the same outrageous price) but they believe me. I find another batch of baklava and another box of tomatoes. The assistant manager writes mysterious elvish script on my receipt and I head back into the night secure in the knowledge that I have clean clothes, baklava, and tomatoes.

And I won't even go into getting rear-ended on the drive home last night (no damage to the AJ 2000 Green Machine, AJ, or the vehicle and occupants that hit me), or my breaking the handle on the toilet when I flushed last night necessitating an emergency trip to Home Depot. This sounds more like Mercury being retrograde than like acute onset dementia, but there must be some way I'm causing all this. My life has become unmanageable but I have no idea why. My life has become unmanageable but I have the baklava and tomatoes, the clean laundry, and a functioning toilet. And the AJ Green Machine 2000 still has the same number of dents it had the day before yesterday. And no, I haven't fixed the garbage disposal yet.