Kindness makes any road easier to travel. Margaret M. Painter
I was emptying the dryer the other day, finishing my laundry for the week, and noticed a few black spots on my socks and tee shirts. They looked like grease marks and I hadn’t, to my knowledge, done any work in or around grease recently, so I made a mental note to investigate (which “note” lasted about 22.3 seconds).
After folding, hanging, and putting away the laundry, I went to clean the lint-trap out of the dryer, and as I removed that little screen I saw the cause of the aforementioned spotting – a silly little grease marker I’d used earlier on a project and had apparently left and forgotten in a pocket of the shirt I’d worn. It was smaller than a standard pencil or pen, so it lay nicely in the pocket until the agitation of the washer brought it out to do its dirty work.
The Valley of the Shadow of Death
That would have been fine. I’m usually pretty careful about checking pockets for loose change (normally finding only lint, instead), but accidents happen. Nonetheless, in the nanosecond it took to remove the screen and see the black marker, it immediately rolled into the now-vacant slot the screen usually occupies. I let out a mighty Viking war cry: (Uff Da!), as if that would stop the tiny implement from rolling into the space destined to become its Valhalla. I moved as quick as lightning to intercept (assuming said lightning has mated with a turtle or snail), but all to no avail. Greased lightning is apparently faster than its Swedish counterpart.
The Offending Marker
Well, as tempting as it would be to let sleeping markers lie, I knew I couldn’t leave it down the slot to risk it clogging the dryer’s exhaust and possibly resulting in a fire, but my hands were too thick to slip through to retrieve it. That meant I needed to remove the lint screen housing. I did some quick research and discerned the housing was only held fast by three tiny screws. That was the good news. One screw was quite visible. The other two, of course, were only accessible by taking apart the dryer’s door and front panel (converting a fifteen minute rescue operation into a two-hour project).
I’m always up for a challenge, but not if it requires dismantling an appliance that costs the equivalent of a month’s wages working at a local big-box store! So I decided to put my superior intellect to work, instead. I grabbed a folding pruning saw and snagged a handful of lint that had collected over the years, thus taking it out of the equation for the solution my gray matter was whipping up. Then I located a small, skinny dowel that was about a foot or so long and attached some reverse-rolled scotch tape to it (using blue painter’s tape). Holding a flashlight with one hand while keeping a spring-loaded hatch down with a finger, I poked the pole down the hole with my right hand, stuck the grease marker with the tape, pulled it up, and managed to nab it with the swift and deft movement of what became my now-free left hand… Success!
The first effort used only blue tape (and only captured lint)
The Successful End of the Stick: Invisible Scotch Tape
Is there some great wisdom to be gained from the telling of this tale? Probably not. While I would like to think life hands us teachable moments (and life tends to resemble the multi-limbed Durga or Kali of East Indian lore with which to toss detritus our way), sometimes a tale has a sufficient raison d’etre to stand on its own.
Life happens. It is how we respond to those happenings that tells us who we are. Sometimes I think I would like to be Thor, the Norse god of thunder. But really, I find it more in keeping with my temperament to be Freyr – a god connected to peace and good harvest. As most people are aware, I am (glad to admit) certainly no god.
In any case, I’m pleased to be able to share these stories, and pray they will continue to delight and inform all of you. Until next time: be sure to check your pockets when doing laundry here in this, our valley!
Keith Axberg writes on matters concerning life and faith. Author of newly released: Who the Blazes is Jesus? Good News for a Vulgar World (available exclusively through Amazon in Print and e-book)
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