I love the David & Goliath cartoons and this one sums my attitude to housework completely.My question for today is: Have you ever had a terrifying experience whilst doing the chores?
A simple visit to the utility room today reminded me of a dreadful experience which I thought I would share as my blog for the day.
I need to share some details first.
1. My utility room is part of an extension to the house and we get to it via the garage
2. Although I live in a large town, I am on the extreme outskirts of it and 2 gardens along from me is a large cricket pitch and then open countryside.
So ... one morning last year I went to the tumble drier to remove some towels which had been washed and dried the day before. Not normally a traumatic experience, but on this occasion I put my hand in, thought to myself 'that doesn't feel like a fluffy freshly laundered towel' and indeed it wasn't. It was a large mouse. A large dead mouse in fact. Totally stiff. And in with my clean towels. Did you hear me scream? I'm sure that anyone in a 100 mile radius might have!
What we think happened was that because I was doing the laundry in the evening, I had propped open the door between utility and garage in order to let the steam escape. In the daytime I just open up the door to the garden. So some poor, elderly, homeless mouse seeking refuge from the dark and the cold had scuttled across the fields, scampered across the cricket field, skipped towards the light coming from beneath the garage doors, edged his way carefully around my car (think 'Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible') climbed over the step, and wondered in amazement as he felt the warmth of the tumble drier. Someone (and I'm blaming Darling Husband for this) had seen the drier had finished, turned it off at the wall and just opened the door to let it cool down without taking the towels out. Imagine the glee of the poor little creature, a warm machine and a mattress of fluffy towels to lie his little head on for the night. What a way to spend his last hours. I tell you, it was the worst housework experience I have ever had! Can you equal that?!
Fortunately you didn't turn me off of housework - I was turned off of that Y-e-a-r-s ago. Why do something that you have to turn around and do all over again tomorrow? Waste of time and energy. But I do have to commend your husband for his animal compassion to give this poor aging mouse comfort to its aching bones in the twilight of its life. Did you throw out the towels or were you brave enough to rewash them (sans mouse, of course) and dry them again (without resetting the dryer trap, of course) DragonsLady
ReplyDeleteEek!! I've never had that kind of experience, but I did sprain my ankle badly on the vacuum cleaner once, that was enough to convince me that housework is an extreme sport and therefore not something I want to take part in!!
ReplyDeleteAnd to misquote DragonsLady, why put all that time and effort into cleaning the house, when 6 months later you have to do it all over again? ;-)
Aagh, that's horrible! But it does make a wonderful funny story. I knew housework couldn't be trusted and you've proved it. Great post.
ReplyDeletethat cartoon is indeed ace!
ReplyDeleteFingers crossed I am back now, housework ..boo..rather be scrappin :-)x
ReplyDeleteNo I cannot equal that story - I was expecting a cricket ball through the window, not a mouse - eek! Housework is evil - I always wait until I know it is going to make a difference - how's that for a dreadful admission?
ReplyDeleteOh no, that is traumatic! I fainted once and fell on the hoover, that is about as close as I have come to a traumatic housework experience! Great post Deb. x
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