"In the beginning"

Disclaimer

The views expressed in this blog are not necessarily the views of the blog management, (on the other hand, they are not necessarily not the views of the blog management).

No effort has been made to stay within the bounds of the truth in this blog as it has always been the view of the management that the truth should never be allowed to stand in the way of a good story.

Saturday, August 11, 2007

Thoughts Deep Still


Introducing Snap Shots from Snap.com

I just installed a nice little tool on this site called Snap Shots that enhances links with visual previews of the destination site, interactive excerpts of Wikipedia articles, MySpace profiles, IMDb profiles and Amazon products, display inline videos, RSS, MP3s, photos, stock charts and more.

Sometimes Snap Shots bring you the information you need, without your having to leave the site, while other times it lets you "look ahead," before deciding if you want to follow a link or not.

Should you decide this is not for you, just click the Options icon in the upper right corner of the Snap Shot and opt-out.

Washing Day.

This one is mainly for the ladies, some of the guys will know about this but it would seem too much like asking directions for them to be interested.

The topic is Washing or Laundry day, we are in the tenth year of a drought here in Queensland and our water storage dams are running perilously short of water so the government has brought in several water saving schemes which attract a rebate or payments for people who adopt them, these include a subsidy on the purchase of a rainwater tank that is plumbed into your laundry and toilet, a rebate for people who purchase a front loader washing machine, and this is the one I want to talk about.

As a concerned person I decided that I should buy a front loader, which for any of you who have this type of machine will know are very frugal on water use and are also quite energy efficient as well, (or so we are told anyway).

I thought seriously about seeking your advice about this before leaping into the abyss of yet another new technology to have to learn about, instead I researched the subject on the Net and talked with the sales people who were selling these items, as with most sales people I found most had an axe to grind and this influenced their advice.

By a process of elimination I did manage to sort out which machine I should buy with the things that I felt were important, like spin speeds, water temperature details, water and power usage, simplicity of use, (did I really just say that?) and washing times.

WAIT a minute, did I just say Washing Times? I was told that a front loader washed very gently and thoroughly therefore it took longer!!!!

OK I had been saving my laundry up for the new front loader to strut its stuff on and found I had 3 loads to do, admittedly by the time I set up my new toy and got it all leveled up and hot to trot it was about 10am, expecting about 90 to 120 minutes per load I thought no problems, the days are starting to get longer now and it’s a lovely day for laundry, sunny with a gentle breeze (see I do know a little about this subject after 13 years of living alone) I hadn’t allocated extra time for reprogramming when IT decided I must have changed my mind about doing the laundry and switched off requiring me to start over with all the buttons and knobs, nor had I expected the 120 minute maximum to blow out to 150/170 minutes.

The upshot of this was that my second load finished at about 4.00pm and I judged it to late to complete the 3rd load today so I have launched into another learning experience, that of programming an automatic start up in the morning via ITS wonderful start preset facility, who knows what IT will do in the early am hours with out me there to admonish IT.

I am thinking that IT needs a better name than IT so I would be most appreciative of any suggestion that you care to make, it’s safe to say that profanity has been tried already, and found wanting.

All this has added a new dimension to WASHING DAY for me as it now takes all day to do what I used to manage in my trusty old twin tub in a bit over an hour, that’s progress for you!!!

On a closely related matter I recently bought some new bed linen, this was expensive but of undoubted quality (the sales lady assured me of this, say no more) it is 600 threads per inch Egyptian cotton and feels like heaven when you slide between the sheets (stop it now I’m getting excited) my previous bed linen was 180 threads per inch and was quite good quality, just in case you are not familiar with the thread count system.

Anyway this was in the first load of washing and when I hung it on the line to dry, BTW after about 6 minutes of spinning at 1000 RPM stuff is pretty near ready to wear straight from the machine, I found both sheets on the grass half an hour later, the material is so smooth the pegs were slipping off, (they are new pegs also, Hoo Boy my life is getting exciting) so next time I’ll have to search for some of my old trusty pegs for them.

Now I’m sure you have all been enraptured by my laundry day and I thank you for your interest, (my new machine is an LG if that helps with the naming process).

UPDATE; the self timing for IT to start its wash cycle worked perfectly
however this load (which is no bigger than the other two) is going to take
2 hours and 57 minutes (177 minutes!!) there are some long laundry days
on the horizon at holtieshouse!!


This is the first photo of....................??

Here's one of the slippery little suckers.





Good sex is like good bridge. If you don't have a good partner, you'd better have a good hand.
Mae West














16 comments:

OldHorsetailSnake said...

Names...names...names....

Land 'o' Washin'
Rub-a-Scrub-Dub
F**cker

That's about all I got today. Mebbe more tomorrow....

Lee said...

Hahahahaha...I'm sure you came up with a far more descriptive name than "It", Peter...if you want some help, I can give you some...in names, that is...not laundry! ;)

You've got to watch those slippery sheets...you could do yourself some damage!

Have a good weekend. :)

Merle said...

Hi Peter ~~ Kathy has one of those Front Loaders, and it is fascinating watching it do it's stuff, but yours sounds as though it will take a long time through cycles. I just got a new Top Loader with buttons and beeps, but it is much quicker.
How about - Sadie - you could sing along with John Farnham to it.
Have fun, Cheers, Merle.

Unknown said...

Now you just set that timer to start washing overnight and you won't have to wait around for anything.
iPastor is the Namer of Things at our house. Maybe he'll have something good.

TLP said...

I guess "Dirty Bastard," is out of the question since it cleans stuff and all.

Maybe "Molasses" as in slower than molasses. Or turtle turd. No reason -- I just think turtle turd has a certain ring to it.

"June" because the Pointer Sisters sang "Slow Hand," and June Pointer is the lead singer.

Vickie said...

Now naming is something I am not any good with---but I think I need a new IT something that is conserving of energy.

Enjoy your weekend.

Christina said...

Ooh I know those sheets are comfortable. I recently bought some 650 thread count sheets, after being accustomed to the 180's, and I LOVE them. Sucks that it takes so long to do the wash, but good that you are trying to conserve water.

btw, was that first bit about Snap Shots supposed to make sense? Because all that came thru on my end was gibberish. (?)

Unknown said...

iPastor and I passed a bit of time on a boring car trip this afternoon tossing about names for your washer, when finally he said, "if it does the wash, it must be Alice." Don't know if you share his affinity for the Brady Bunch, but it does have a ring to it.

Puss-in-Boots said...

Right, Peter, you've done very well and put me off buying a front loader. I haven't got time for an almost three hour wash! I'll stick to my trusty toploader, which has three different water levels. I very rarely use the "full load", mainly medium and small.

As for names...how about Speedy, as in it's not?

Anonymous said...

Oh, please name it Martha after Martha Stewart. IT will feel honored and do so much better. I know cuz I just feel it in my bones.

What? You hang out laundry!!! I haven't done that since Christ was a Corporal (little humor there from my past life with a Marine).
GET YOURSELF A DRYER!! Come to think of it I haven't seen a laundry pole or line or even a clothes pin for at least twenty years.

Always enjoy visiting your site.

Gwen said...

Hi Peter.
Ty for the visit,I think I'll stick to what I've got W/Machine.
It's a bit hard trying to get some
jokes that most haven't seen but
not easy,
Stay Well.

Anonymous said...

Laundry is fun. I do my share around here.

Jack K. said...

Why must you make everything an adventure? tee hee

You're a brave man, Peter. We recently had to have our old machines, i.e., washer and dryer, replaced.

After 20+ years the washer died and my dear wife liking things neat, tidy and matching, declared we would get new ones. She is a whiz at online research. We got the latest GE machines that are connected with a USB cable and do talk to each other.

Since they are so damned complicated, and she has learned how to program it, I am not allowed to go near them without adult supervision.

I am allowed to watch their readout screens. The damned things will give you an estimated running time and then change it in the middle of the operation. Go Figure!

Anyway, Peter, don't ever curse at machines. They are very, very sensitive. You will hurt their feelings and they will get back at you.

Just remember, they are our friends. They are doing something for us. They will do it in their on unique way, so load them up, push the start button and go have a beer or two.

Happy laundering.

Jamie Dawn said...

Well, at least IT is nice looking.
Call her Mae. :-)

Marcus said...

Great story Pop, you do those posts really well.

I liked the Alice suggestion, or maybe to keep it in the family, John Dear, being a Front (end) Loader.

See you in 37 days, for me, 32 for Carolyn and the boys.

Marcus

Val said...

Well done on getting a front loader. They may take longer to get the job done, but they are much more efficient and do a better rinsing job than top loaders. There is probably an "express" cycle though, my front loader has that.

Also, it sounds like you had it plumbed to take in just cold water, meaning the machine takes more time to heat the water. We've got ours plumbed to hot and cold, so 90 minutes is about the longest it takes.

I'm rather disheartened to read that some people suggest putting everything in a dryer. What a waste of resources, and of course that is adding to pollution too.