Oh, And We Saw a Bear

On Monday, Jenni noticed a little slime in the dishwasher.

We live ‘in the country’ and are therefore dependent on water from a well—a well that is more than 700 ft deep.  It is my theory that well water causes this slime to build up in our dishwasher and we must periodically give it a thorough cleaning.

I was probably fifty years-old before I learned dishwashers had filters and needed cleaning.  Evidently we had avoided the issue over the years simply by moving frequently.  Actually, for my first twenty-two years the only dishwasher I was familiar with was the Left-Hand, Right-Hand model that came with a bottle of Palmolive.  (Yes, “you’re soaking in it now.”)  When I graduated from college and had my first apartment, it wasn’t unheard of to send a single bowl and cereal spoon through the full wash cycle of the dishwasher! Because I could!

But back to the matter at hand.  We dismantled every moving piece in our Whirlpool Gold.  Over the next hour, we scrubbed orange-colored slime from places you normally could not see just poking your head in the machine. (The gag reflex was in full effect.)  We employed pipe cleaners, baking soda/vinegar flushes, and an army of brushes.  And then over the next hour we put it all back together.  There were no extra parts when we finished.  We loaded up a sink full of dirty dishes and started the wash cycle.  After that, our recovery period included time in the recliners watching Table Rock in the distance; we were also treated to two deer (bucks) who cautiously worked the tree line nibbling on new tree growth.

On Tuesday, I started to unload the ‘clean’ dishes. 

I noticed the soap tray had not completely emptied of powder so I set the machine for another full cycle.  I had an eye exam later that day I needed to study for so I kept the chores to a minimum.  When I returned home, my eyes were dilated so I just sat in a dark room most of the afternoon.

On Wednesday morning, I started to unload the ‘clean’ dishes.  Yeah, still not clean.

Wednesday was Emmaday—our granddaughter was spending the day with us!  Before her arrival, I went on a little cleaning blitz, filled the sink with hot soapy water, and washed every dish/utensil I could get my hands on.  We had a wonderful time playing with Emma. 

At some point we put her down for a nap and later heard what we thought was the UPS delivery truck start down our driveway, but he never made it the hundred yards to our house.  On rare occasions they have left packages at our mailbox in the cul-de-sac so Jenni headed out the door to investigate.  She quickly returned to the house excitedly announcing there was a very large rattlesnake between her and the mailbox!  The only thing available at the door was a fan rake and a walking stick but I grabbed the tools I had and hurried up the drive. 

The rattlesnake seemed to have a flat tail (leading up to TEN rattles); my theory is that the UPS driver made contact and then backed away.  I used the fan rake to keep the pet from moving away while Jenni brought me a shovel to finish what UPS had started.

On Thursday, we had a luncheon at church.  (The same one we missed a month ago when the semi-truck got stuck on our neighborhood road and blocked our exit for six hours.)  A great lunch meant light leftovers for dinner that evening, which was perfect because the dishwasher still wasn’t working.

On Friday, while Jenni did some grocery shopping, I dismantled the Whirlpool innards once again.  I identified a piece or two, critical to water flow, that were not properly seated and made the corrections to get a tighter fit.  I then started a cycle with a cereal bowl, a spoon, and two coffee mugs.  Fingers crossed, it all looked good hours later!

That’s how our week went down.

Oh, and we saw a bear.  Just down the road from our cul-de-sac, but that’s fairly typical and hardly worth mentioning.