It will be warm and humid today, no surprise there, but the morning is still cool. It has become a ritual of sorts for me to open the doors and windows in the morning then close them to the heat of the afternoon when I turn on the AC. It is nap time for all the animals. Fern sleeps in the sun streaming through the front door while Gracie and Maddie are comfortable on the couch.

The day is pretty quiet right now. The birds aren’t singing, the leaves aren’t blowing and none of the kids from down the street are outside playing or riding their bikes. Today is their last day of summer. School starts tomorrow. Tonight will be bath night and then early to bed.

The first load of laundry is done and needs to go into the dryer. I gave in finally.

When I was a kid, the washing machine was in the cellar right next to the deep sink. It was a white wringer, the same as everyone else’s washing machine. My mother did several loads a week of laundry. It was a process. The clothes were spun in the soapy water in the barrel-like part by the agitator and then my mother put the clothes through the wringer, sometimes twice, to get rid of the excess water. Finally the clothes went hung to dry on the outside lines no matter the season. I used to like to watch my mother wring the clothes. Our machine was electric so she just fed the clothes to the rollers. I had a déjà vu moment when I first made pasta. My mother and her washing machine jumped into my head when I put the dough through the rollers. It was the same process. You even had to dry the dough.

I have it easy and I still procrastinate.