Dear Friend I Missed You,

This past week I realized how lucky I had been for the past, well, a long time. We had a friend come back to stay with us for a while at our house. I’ve known this friend for as long as I can remember, and one day, this friend started acting a little strange and was causing us to worry. We were afraid for a time that our friend had gone off the deep end, a tad bit too crazy, and we were right. The worst part about this whole situation was that our friend, was our washing machine. This was heart breaking for us all. Four people in one house depend on this type of friend to always be there for them, and it was, at least until it’s electrical board got fried somehow. The washing machine started randomly starting, stopping, spinning, and rinsing when no one was even home! It is a scary feeling to hear things in your house when you know you are the only one there, or at least you think. We had to use the laundry room sink to wash our clothes for months, and let me tell you what a humbling experience that was. I realized that washing machines have not been around long at all, but we take them for granted and also how helpful they are. A typical wash, during the several months that the washer was broken, consisted of filling the small sink with what you could for clothes and water, then working your hands through it for 10-20 minutes, then draining the water, refilling, and rinsing. For some reason, I felt like the boy version of Annie in the orphanage. I’m glad at least our dryer still worked! So, every weekend consisted of 2-4 loads to wash in the sink. It was a hard knock life, but I realized that life still goes on. It was similar to the experience of forgetting your phone somewhere and not having it for a time, after the initial shock, you realize you can still easily get through your day. Poor Brendan got his phone taken by those mean STEM kids, and after all the head banging, moaning, crying, and loud wailing, he came to his senses and had a wonderful rest of the day! I don’t mean to pick on Brendan, and I’m sure all of you can relate. So after months of doing this for laundry, we happened to come across a free washing machine that no one needed, and were able to get it inside and working. We kicked the old one outside to the porch for the dump. I would like to load it to the top with giant fireworks, light the fuse, and see how many pieces it blows into. Maybe then it would understand how my heart felt after it stopped working. But, remember, all is well in the world still. I have a working washing machine now, and it does everything perfectly. And that was the friend I so dearly missed.