I am taking the risk to tell a Funny Story from last year. I wrote this unpublished blog in April 2020. My unsalaried volunteer editor, Mitch, said, “Don’t post it! – you will sound like the dishwasher is your biggest problem.” I just wanted to tell, what I thought, was a funny story. But my opinionated editor won, and I let the blog sit for a WHOLE YEAR!
The anecdote seems so benign a year later. The retelling shows how anxious and freaked we were 12-months ago. I am sharing this today instead of writing what I thought of the Oscars last Sunday because that would sound like a trite blog…
Travel back to April 2020 (if you dare). Our home, at the time, included one daughter, one son-in-law, two grandchildren, and a grand-dog. Mitch and I, plus our two furry sons, also inhabited the house. It was the beginning of learning to live together along with the beginning of the stay-put restrictions. The year of cleaning groceries and sterilizing mail and the beginning of the new normal that we didn’t understand. Do we know it now?
The Start of a Funny Story
The story starts with a broken dishwasher soap dispenser spring. Here is the original rest of the story (Sorry, editor Mitch)
April 2020
I noticed that the dishwasher dispenser door was not opening. Did this mean that the dishwasher didn’t actually cleanse our dishes? I can’t even go there, or I would have to rewash every dish and cutlery that we own. Plus, ruminate on the thought that we were eating from non-sanitized cutlery!
Our world, like yours, has changed significantly. We are full-time Nana and Papa Day Care for the time being. We have two grandchildren clients; Noa is 6-months and Brady 4 years old. Our daughter starts work at 8 AM, and we are in charge until 5:30ish. I fill my glass of wine at 5:35 and recharge for the next day.
As I am writing this, we have babysat on our own for 1-day.
Empty Nest is Full
Mitch and I have been empty nesters for more than ten years. He retired two years ago, and I retired three years- four months- one week- five days ago, but seriously I am not counting, but my “Day’s Since” App is calculating to the second. We are embracing our new world with young kids. For example, I like to write in the morning, so I wake up at 5:45 AM and bring a large exercise ball into my closet. Seated on the ball, I face my laptop, sitting on top of my tall laundry basket, and viola, an office! (Note from 2021 – this set-up lasted about two days)
Yes, it has been hectic in the house, and the dishwasher calamity only added to my frenzy. First, I tried to repair it using YouTube as my guide. That was not successful, so the next step was to buy a replacement soap dispenser door. I was on my computer upstairs, and Carly and the baby were downstairs. I screamed (as only a former New Yorkah can) to my daughter, who happened to be holding the baby, to please take a photo of the dishwasher model number.
Funny?
Do you have an iPhone? If so, you can press on the photos for the live version, and it becomes a mini 2-3 second video. She sent me the “live” iPhone photo of the dishwasher model number. I decided to press on the image (for no apparent reason), and to my surprise, I heard, “The baby just threw up in the dishwasher!” What? How does that happen? Dr. Fauci, how do I sterilize that? Especially without a working soap dispenser!
So that about sums up our new world.
One Year Later
It is now a year later, and the story is kind of a funny story; cute but not as dramatic as I initially thought. Our lives at the time were so upended, so frayed and fraught. Every minor occurrence magnified. Although, throwing up in the dishwasher can still be categorized as a dramatic event without a pandemic raging outside your window.
I am curious how history will retell this period in our lives. But for now, I am glad that we still had the capacity to laugh that the baby “hurled” in the broken dishwasher.
Oh, what a year it was!
You are still here! So no harm down
LOL! True….
great blog
Thank you!!!!
Hi Vicky – it isn’t the detergent that “sterilizes” your dishes, it’s the heat of the hot water. So rest at ease, you didn’t poison yourselves a year ago 😎
😊 Thanks,Glenn! And thanks for reading .