Down Time/Days Off

Life never seems to follow my plan. Having a well thought out plan smoothes rough roads and increases productivity. So when Life Happens (while you're making other plans) it can be disconcerting...

Take today for example. A Simple Plan...stay up all night, do a load of laundry, and run errands in Reno while the clothes dry. All done before the little impulse of stormy weather makes driving a hassle Monday afternoon!

Simplicity itself...until reality set in. When the rinse and spin finished, I saw water on the floor under the laundry stack. Problem noted...soapy water on laundry closet floor...Simple. Mop it up, run the dryer, go to Reno.

OK, all done, and I hit the Dryer's Start Button...Nothing (except the 60 cycle hum of a stuck motor in the dryer)! Damn!

Here's where the "Best Laid Plans..." went off the rails. The "Laundry Room" in the DaveCave is really a small closet that does triple duty as the "Cleaning Closet", the "Laundry Room" and the "Pantry". There's no way to get into said closet to affect repairs, so all the stuff on the shelves, on the floor, and on top of the Laundry Stack need to be relocated. Next, disconnect both the water supply hoses, the 240V power plug, the washer drain and the dryer vent hose, and remove the shelving before walking the unit out of the closet and into the relative spaciousness of the entry hallway.

While hauling the stock out, I noticed the chewed hole through the plastic dryer vent hose....Hmm, critters...

Once I had the stack in the hall, my diagnosis began. I could only turn the dryer drum in one direction...something was jamming up the works... firing up my trusty Mini-Maglite, I peered into the dryer's exhaust and I saw a thicket of pine cones crammed into the end of the exhaust tact! These were "spent" pine cones...that is, the pine nuts had already been harvested by the furry little woodland creature prior to stashing his cache. The squirrel had jammed them into the squirrel cage fan that pushes the hot air through the dryer drum. I removed seven in all, but not before I totally disassembled the lion's share of the back of the dryer! All in all, it took me all afternoon to get 'er done...Reno will be there tomorrow...or Wednesday...

Whatta mess! A bushel of lint, mixed with a half dozen+ pine cones, and a side of Popcorn Kernels...ahh, nature. I remembered my landlord's wife had been engaged in a pitched battle with the local squirrels this Summer and Fall, as were most folks living in Truckee...Traps, Repellent Devices, and Poison Baits were all back ordered in every Truckee Hardware Store this year.

I wrote about the Folksy Nature Weather Forecast Analogs this summer...not exactly onion skins, or woolly worm coats, but locally celebrated all the same. Time will tell if this Winter lives up the the little critters' predictions.

Oh, the dryer's fixed. The laundry is dry and folded.