WHAT GOES AROUND, HOO BOY

Blog number 399 **** 18 July, 2010

I am pretty sure it was a natural process of circumstances and the personalities of the involved, but the end result sure seems like it had been planned. Let me explain.

For many years I loved washing dishes by hand. I was the dishwasher in our family. I loved the making ready the sink with hot water and lots of suds, dumping in the dirty dishes, cleaning them until they sparkled, the useful feeling when all was washed. To me it was kind of meditative, like lying in a warm sun, relaxing.

Washing dishes by using the dishwasher always seemed like work. I didn't like bending over, pulling out the drawers, grabbing a couple of cups, putting them away, going back for more, then when that was all done, gathering up the dirty dishes and reversing the gathering procedure. Not fun or relaxing at all.

When we moved here to this nameless city by the bay, I was told that I was no longer to wash dishes by hand. It was not germ free enough. Not sterile enough. So I started using the dishwasher. Very frequently I was told "don't put them it there like that, you idiot!" Well, the "idiot" is an added bit I put in just because I can, but you get the idea.

Finally my wife told me that she would take care of the dishes, that I was free to take my show on the road. I could play. She would work. So that went on for a few weeks and then I began hearing, "Don't leave the dishes on the counter like that, put them in the sink." Ok.

Then I began hearing "You filled up the sink with dishes." I responded, "You told me to put them in the sink!" So I started putting them in the dishwasher. I must have learned how to put them in right, because I no longer hear that I am doing it wrong.

So last night I was up after the wife went to bed, taking clean dishes out of the dishwasher and putting in the dirty ones before I went to bed when I suddenly realized that I had been washing the dishes by dishwasher when she clearly told me several months ago that I was no longer to worry about the dishes, that she would take care of them.

How did she so easily guide me into doing the dishes her way? I didn't even know it was happening. Up until last night's sudden realization, I thought she was doing the dishes and I wasn't. Was it planned? She's that good, I know that. But it still seems like it was just a natural process. But was it?.......