Somebody

Wow, it has been a week or more, and I realized that I may not have had an inspiration for a new post.  But, I received that inspiration on Sunday afternoon.  And, or course, it is thanks, unknowingly to the wife. My wife has this habit of saying things like: "Somebody got the floor dirty!" Or  "Somehow this item ended up in the wrong place." This is a close relation to the phrase, "How did this happen." Of course, instead of specifically referencing me, she leaves it open ended. In a sense, this approach is not unlike many qualities present in the wife app.  There are, at present, two people in the household, and if it was not her, it had to be me.  Hence, I know who she really thinks is at fault. Although she hears noises in the walls at times, so perhaps there is a third creature in the house; but that is another story.

I lost track of how many times just this past week she used such a phrase, but it is fairly common.  I tend to simply ignore the comment.  After all, they are not usually in the form of question. Sunday was a different story, the shoe, to use a well worn phrase, was on the other foot.

Late in the afternoon, I noticed that the level of seed in the finch feeder had been static for the past few days.  This is a clue to me that the feeder needs to be cleaned.  I take the feeder down, and save the good seed.  The bad seed, which is usually sticking together due to having been soggy from a rainfall, generally gathers near the small holes from which the finches and other small birds use to feast on the feed.  I have a routine, where I take the feeder to the big washtub in the basement to clean it out using water, a rag and a long item, such as a really long screwdriver.  I then fill the tub with some water and add a little bit of bleach to the water and let the tube and its disassembled parts soak in the bleach water in order to disinfect the feeder.    

Today, I could not find the bleach.  It is always kept in a second tub, no longer used for washing, with other agents such as a bottles of ammonia and vinegar.  I also store car detergent and a few other things in that tub.  Low and behold, I cannot find the bleach. I thought of using vinegar, but could not get the bottle open, so I simply used hot water.  After setting the items of the feeder in the breeze to dry, I asked my wife if we were out of bleach.  She knew I occasionally use some in our backyard pond to remove algae growth, and I had done that several days earlier.  She asked if I used it up on the pond and forgot to add it to the grocery list.  I said, I would probably remember if I used it up.  So it came, that after dinner, I decided to go downstairs and hunt for the bleach.  I turned the corner to look at the wash machine, and I quickly noticed two bottles, one a gallon size, the other smaller. Right away I knew I located the bleach bottle, so I picked it up, along with the smaller container (distilled vinegar) and put them in the old tub, their rightful spot.  You see everything has a place, and that is where you put the item when you have completed using it.  That way you don't have to go looking for it or, worse, lose it. A misplaced object may cause a slightly impatient person to wonder what happened, in this case to the bleach.  

Coming up the stairs, I said to my spouse, "I found the bleach. Somebody stuck it on the floor by the washer." I could have said you left it by the washer, but I liked the use of "Somebody."  It was not me who stuck it by the washer, she seldom lets me put a load of clothes in the washer, although it is fine for me to hang them on the line or put them in the dryer.  Perhaps she has her own little magic formula she uses to when and how much bleach or distilled vinegar to add to a specific load of laundry. Doing the laundry is how is how the bleach came to be by the washer, and somebody had to put it there.  If it was the Gremlin in the wall, it would mean we have bigger problems.