Get With It Guys: Wash Your Own Clothes!

I've been washing my own clothes for years. I got used to it from attending a boarding high school. When I got married, I happily let my wife wash all the clothes until the day i was out of shirts and realized with a bit of a shock that she had quit washing them. I was a bit ashamed, realizing how ridiculous it was that she would be washing my clothes in the first place, so I resumed that task.

It isn't a lot of work. I usually put a load in when I'm out of any particular item, like underwear yesterday. When you're not overloaded, washing is no harder than putting on your underwear. It gets tough when you have to wash every day, like some moms.

I fill the washer when I'm washing shirts, but only dry 6 or 7 at a time so they don't wrinkle. I also take my shirts out one at a time, and keep the dryer tumbling while I hang one up. Permanent press wasn't invented when I was in high school, so I had to iron all my cotton shirts with starch. Now I avoid ironing like the plague.

Back then, I still threw my towels in my wife's laundry basket (daily) until she the day she said "Why do I get to wash all the towels?". So I added my towels to my clothes pile. In high school I used to wash my stiff towel about once a month, so it felt like a luxury to have a new towel every day, just like in a hotel. But when I started washing my own towels, I decided once a week was often enough. No surprise there, right ladies?

So, men, if you aren't washing your own clothes, get off your butts and get with it. You need at least a week's worth of clothes. After unloading a bunch of pink underwear, I learned to wash whites separately. Shirts can all be together unless they are new red or blue (especially cotton t-shirts). Colored socks I wash alone so it is easy to sort them.

You have no idea how much your darling will appreciate this.

Teachers YES! Tunnel NO!

Washington State is laying of thousands of teachers because of a 2009-2011 budget deficit expected to be 6.8 billion dollars, while the governor and the legislature sign a bill to dig a tunnel under Seattle at an estimated price of $4 billion dollars. Governor Christine Gregoire promises that it will be built on time and under budget.

Gregoire has nothing to say to the children whose education will suffer because she would rather pay diggers than teachers. Maybe we should give all the kids shovels, and march them downtown to help dig the tunnel. As the sweat drips in their eyes, they will learn that we don't live in a democracy any more. The majority of voters said we don't want a tunnel. The state leaders said "Tough beans."

I suggest three changes in the state constitution:
1. That teachers are the last to be laid off in a budget reduction;
2. That school building maintenance be the last cut from the maintenance budget;
3. That all state projects costing over one million dollars be approved by a majority vote of the people.

While Washington's budget woes are largely due to a shortfall in sales tax revenues, none of Oregon's shortfall is. Why? Simple. They have no sales tax, so they don't depend on that undependable source of income.

Oregon's shortfall is expected to be only 2.2 billion.

Oregon spends $9,126 annually, per pupil.
Washington spends $8,480.

Maybe we should get a clue.

No Smell Deodorant

I've done some stupid things in my life, but a recent purchase is right up there. I like Tom's natural products, and use their toothpaste and deodorant. I usually buy the peppermint toothpaste with no fluoride, and the apricot-scented deodorant.

When I ran out of my deodorant, I decided to try a different scent. I went to the store and noticed one labeled "for sensitive skin", (hey, aren't guys supposed to embrace that?) but more remarkable was that it was "scentless". I was intrigued. How could a deodorant be scentless? I had to buy it to find out.

I found out. The scentless deodorant does nothing. Duh. It covers up stink with somebody's imagination. What a joke.


No Smell Deodorant, Part II
Guys don't read the instructions. Or fine print. Well, I finally did look at the back of the deodorant, figuring there had to be a reason for no scent. It turns out that the stuff contains hops, which is supposed to prevent bacteria from growing (yuck, an armpit full of bacteria?) of which I have no proof, but I'm still using the deodorant, and I don't think I stink much. At least my wife hasn't complained!

Tilt

This morning as I was riding the bus down the counterbalance I noticed all the buildings were leaning uphill. How odd!

Quote for the Evening

No matter how cynical you get,
it is impossible to keep up.

-- Lily Tomlin

O Canada!

Every 4 years or so, I wish I lived in Canada. In the U.S. we have such angst about our presidential elections, and I never hear about such conflicts from our Great Northern Neighbor. I used to live in Montana, near the Canadian border, and when I was a kid, went to the Valley View Bible Camp in Saskatchewan. It always was a fun time, and I always fell in love with the Canadian people (well, maybe especially one or two of the opposite sex...). We swam a lot in the muddy river that ran through camp, and hiked into the prairie dodging ferocious cacti and ticks. One of my best friends (and college roomate) is a pastor in Calgary who used to be a farmer in Hagen, near P.A. I always loved to say P.A. For you non-Saskatchewanites, it is an abbreviation for Prince Albert. Saying P.A. is like saying L.A. for Los Angeles. It makes me feel like an insider. Let's go to P.A. and play some billiards. Let's go to P.A. and see a movie. Isn't that fun?

When I was in the 9th grade, we moved to Oakland, and when I heard people using the L.A. abbreviation, I thought that was what Californians did for all cities with two names. So when my brother had friends visiting from out-of-town, I said, "Let's go to S.F. and show everyone the sights!" Everybody looked at me quizzically for a second and then burst out laughing. "S.F. San Francisco!" I was a little embarrassed, but I just grinned and said "What's wrong with that? "

But I digress. It would be interesting to be a Canadian and watching the U.S. elections. I had a friend once who refused to fly his U.S. flag after George Bush Sr. was elected. I think that is a bit much. After all, I still flew my flag when Clinton was president. I even voted for Jimmy Carter back in the day. Can't say I'm not open-minded.

This year I'm voting for the Constitution Party's candidate, Dr. Chuck Baldwin. He promises to bring some sanity back to the U.S., like eliminating the Internal Revenue Service, and closing our borders to illegal aliens. And if you don't believe there are thousands of illegal aliens in the U.S., just watch Men in Black. As my mom would say, "Oh, horrors!".

Quote for the Evening

I like an escalator because an escalator can never break,
it can only become stairs.
There would never be an
escalator temporarily out of order
sign, only an
escalator temporarily stairs. Sorry for the convenience.

Mitch Hedberg
(1968-2005) an American stand-up comedian

Atonement

Ever since I saw Atonement, I've been racking my brain trying to figure out if I have ever seen a sadder movie. I haven't. This movie is not only sad, it is tragic. Schindler's List at least had some redeeming moments. The Shawshank Redemption had many redeeming moments. I thought with a title like "Atonement" that this would be a movie with a happy ending. It does have a happy ending, sort of, but a tragic happy ending. I can't say more without ruining the movie, but just be prepared. Fortify your emotions. Eat some breakfast of champions. Go with someone you can grip hands with. Go with someone you can hug afterwards. You'll be too sad to cry, because you'll know the movie is real life, and it can't be changed. Or can it?

The previews mention a lying child. There is a reason one of the 10 Commandments says "Thou shalt not bear false witness." There is little that is more sinister. You might be mad at the end of the movie. I guarantee you will be sad. You will be stricken. I can't say it enough. But it is an excellent movie. Sad. Tragic. Excellent.

Quote for the Evening

"The price one pays for pursuing any profession or calling is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side."

-- James Baldwin
U.S. Author (1924-1987)

Seattle Social Police

Didn't it seem innocent when they forced us to buy "efficient" toilets that wouldn't waste 5 gallons a flush? Nobody cares that you have to flush the new toilets many times to get them empty, and nobody cares that my 89-year-old dad plugged the toilet many times, and stood there in his confused adult-onset-dementia state and flushed, and flushed, and stared perplexed at the flooded floor.

Then it was water-flow reducers, that make you take a 15 minute shower that used to take 7 minutes because it takes longer to wash off all the soap suds with the reduced force.

Garbage cans became Seattle's next target, with recyclable materials outlawed from your trash can, complete with garbage police to inspect and reject garbage cans with more than 10% recyclable material by volume. There are two warnings before a $50 fine.

Table scraps were the next feast for the newly-monikered Seattle City Clowncil. All except meat and diary products are also outlawed from the garbage can, and have to be put in the yard waste container. And beginning in 2009, residents will be charged for their work.

Now the city is proposing a 20-cent tax if you use a grocery store's plastic or paper bags. And they want to give part of the money to stores for having to collect it. Not to mention that the stores will save "hundreds of thousands" in bag costs, according to the local news broadcast.

Proposals are also in the works to tax un-green things like disposable diapers and plastic bottles.

When do you think the social engineering will stop? I think they'll soon charge $5 a gallon for water, $10 a gallon tax on gasoline (to encourage conservation, of course!) and a dollar-a-day for the air we breathe.

Oh, and the Seattle Social Police will just want to be called the SS.