ann@skypoint.SPAMBLOCK.comBETTER THAN FINDING MORE SNOW AT THE MAILBOX,
IT'S THE LATEST ISSUE OF
THE MABRY FAMILY NEWS
SIGNS YOU'RE GETTING OLDER - INTERNET HUMOR SENT BY PAT
*The only reason you're still awake at 4am is indigestion. *Your arms are almost too short to read the newspaper. *You quit trying to hold your stomach in, no matter who walks into the room. *Your back goes out more than you do. *You start singing along with the elevator music... *The phone rings and you hope it's not for you... *You've owned clothes so long that they've come back into style.....twice *The end of your tie doesn't come anywhere near the top of your pants.... *You begin a sentence by saying, "When I was your age..." *Nobody ever tells you to slow down... *You have a party and the neighbors don't even realize it... *You can't sit still without falling asleep... *Your idea of the perfect nightcap is Metamusil * You start believing that you really did walk five miles to school barefoot and in the snow....
TRAVEL NEWS
Betty traveled to the Wisconsin state capitol in Madison this week. This post-gubernatorial tour, the finest since Tommy Thompson went to Washington, was interesting. When you see Betty, be sure to ask her if she saw State Street, for shopping and entertainment, the corridor of activity that connects the Wisconsin State Capitol and the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.
In more travel news, the first annual trip of the Cavorting Cousins is scheduled for the first week in April. The CC's, as they are locally known, will accompany the Globetrotting Grandma's for an extravaganza of Las Vegas lights, window shopping and pool-side basking like never before. The CC's and the GG's, not to be confused with the BeeGee's who are not scheduled to play at this troupe's hotel while they are in town, will be treated to the sounds of other peoples' slot machines spitting out nickels like they were going out of style in honor of their visit. The CC's, Peg and Ginny to some, and the GG's, Pat and Jo to others, will be exempt from the Mail A Cousin campaign while in flight, but in honor of the postage rate hikes, the USPS anticipates the announcement of a blow-out picture postcard mailing spree by the four.
BABY NEWS
Diana's son Jim and his wife are the proud new parents of a baby boy, Thomas Wayne. Jim's family lives in Missouri and this is their fourth child.
At Ann's house, Allison has an ear infection and Maia is allergic to the cats. On a sad note, their gray cat, Castrol, has been missing for three days and is presumed to be off tomcatting willy nilly.
You recently read about the 'orange fiasco'....... well, then there was the time......
It became difficult in later years for our mother, Marg, to do a spring and fall housecleaning in that house in Luck. (You know, the one that had walls that were 12 feet to the ceiling.) As one visited it became rather obvious that Mother needed help and her inability to do things was driving her crazy.
After some long distance discussions, we three girls, Betty, Pat and I, worked out a deal where, if Betty could have Pat's kids at the farm, Pat and I would meet at Luck and attack the scrubbing and cleaning. However, for all of us, our time was limited and we could give the project 2 to 3 days max. Thus we proceeded!!!
When Pat and I got started on the cleaning part of this project we soon found that we were looking at an even bigger task than we had anticipated. Besides realizing that we had bitten off more than 2 or 3 days could possibly complete under normal circumstances even with 2 of us working on it...... we also had helpful (?!?!?) suggestions and requests from Mother. They included such things as, "could you check the attics" (there were four attices upstairs!), and "I haven't been able to get to the basement, do you think you'd have time to see about that?", etc, etc, etc. After mute nodding of our heads, we pitched in!
After many hours, we held a short conference between ourselves and decided the thing to do was to not attempt to do laundry as we went along but to just pile it, put it in my car and take it to the laundromat at night and use as many washers as we could find empty. Speeding up the whole process, rather than running up and down the basement stairs and out to the clothes line while trying to wash walls, windows, clean cupboards, clean attics, etc. Sound like a plan?
So, after 2 days of digging, scrubbing and cleaning we had a car full of laundry! Now everyone knows that when you do laundry you sort the clothes, load the washers, put in the soap and bleach, turn on the machines, sit down and read a book until they finish the wash cycle, then you dry them, fold them, load the car and go home. About 2 to 3 hours, right? Wrong!
We arrived at the laundromat after the dinner hour to find the laundromat empty and all washers available. We promptly established squatters rights and loaded 15 washers, and proceeded with the remaining tasks necessary to set the machines in motion.
Neither Pat, nor I, had picked up on the fact that Mother said she had been unable to do the basement stairs at the house. She had been washing everything, including sheets by hand for a long, long time. There was enough soap in those fabrics to do everyones laundry many times over. You have not lived until you see 15 washing machines with their lids rising up several inches spewing soap bubbles over the top, down the sides and onto the floor. The floor was completely covered with soap bubbles in a matter of minutes!
Fortunately for me, I saw the couple ready to enter the laundromat before Pat did. I decided to make a hasty, but temporary, exit. I couldn't resist as I met the couple in the doorway to offer sympathy. So, all I said was, "That poor woman."
P.S. We ended up having to run those washers multiple times to get the soap out before we could even think of drying them, folding them, loading my car, and getting back to Luck. Not only had we cleaned the house at Luck, we ended up having to scrub the laundromat. You should all experience the thrill of doing the laundromat janitorial service chasing ellusive soap bubbles around the floor.
As told by Jo, March 2001.
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