The Cure for Boredom is Curiosity.

It's around 1:30 PST and I should be in bed. Asleep. The cat would like for me to go to bed so she can play in peace. But I decided to make yogurt at midnight. That way it can incubate overnight and when I get up, I'll be able to put it in the fridge. I should check how dry the stain is on my door too. Maybe a load of dishes too. My goal is to be in bed by two.

I enjoy laundry.
I like the washing, the drying and the folding of clean laundry. I know, it's a little weird, but it's one of the household chores that I really do enjoy doing. I do a lot of thinking about things while I do laundry. Laundry makes me introspective. Laundry makes me contemplative. Laundry helps me to formulate ideas, thoughts, desires, wants, needs, etc.

Today while folding laundry I spied a picture of my granddaddy and me.
Obviously, the picture is from a long time ago.

I have this particular picture up because it makes me happy. It also makes me sad because I miss my granddaddy. I made peace with his death knowing that he was in a better place, but still that sad place in my heart is there.

And then I thought about Micha. She's the first cat I ever had.

For the first time, her name didn't come immediately to my mind. I felt terrible because I had to think about her name. But for the first time, my heart doesn't hurt as much and my eyes don't immediately fill with tears. And I realize that time does eventually heal all wounds. Well, time won't get rid of the scars, but at least it does heal the gaping wound.

No comments. I'm not in a sad mood, just contemplative and observing life.

I've finally finished washing all the sheets, blankets, pillows, towels and anything else that wasn't nailed down or too big to fit in the washer.

I also finally figured out where the lint trap is on my washer. I bought one of the washer/dryer combos - more out of space necessity than that's the one I had to have. I really do like it, but for weeks I've been wondering "where does all the lint go?" It can't all go down the drain. It's also a ventless dryer so basically it evaporates the water from your clothes rather than heating them up to dry them out. I read through the manual front to back, even the Spanish section in case I missed something in English. If you take into consideration that my Spanish SUCKS, then you understand that I was grasping at straws.

Today I found the lint catcher thingy. I heard the washer ding ding ding-ing at me that something was wrong. I thought that the load was probably off balance, so I went to go readjust. NO! I had a different error code. I grabbed the useless manual and turned to the error code troubleshooting section - check for bent section of drain hose or clean out drain filter. There's a drain filter? I check the hose - no kink. I flip through the manual to find where to access the drain filter. That's what that little square box on the front is for. I pry it open like it says and voilå! the drain filter. I followed the directions and pulled out basically a wad of dog and cat hair. No wonder the drain was clogged. Now that I've found this secret compartment, I will be cleaning it on a regular basis.

I also freaked the bejeebers out of myself cleaning out that filter. When I unscrewed the filter, water came pouring out into the floor. I grabbed a towel to wipe up the mess, wiping under the washer in the process. I pushed a black many legged thing, that looked dead, out from under the edge of the washer. I eeked, left the laundry room to go run around the house "ewwwwwww" ing and to find a shoe to make sure it was dead. You know those little black spider rings that people give out at Halloween? Yes, under the washer is where Bella left this one. She is happily playing with it now. I'm sure I'll wake up in the middle of the night with it dropped into my hand when she decides it time to play fetch.

The dog and I made a much needed trip to the vet. All of his shots are updated and he is legal to be in Berkeley. More importantly he has a place to stay while we're gone. We go to a teaching vet clinic, so Dexter gets to be a teaching dog while we're gone. I think he's excited about this because everybody gives him cookies and kisses.

Other than an exciting trip to the library and a jaunt to get dinner, the rest of my day has been uneventful. I still need to vacuum and mop all the floors. Yuck, housework.