Having just barely survived a love- and chaos-filled Thanksgiving, Life in the Boomer Lane has been experiencing the same kind of whiplash that Mitt Romney must be feeling right now. But, while Mitt is being forced to remain in the political purgatory mode, LBL can move on to other important issues in her life and in the lives of her readers, namely dishwashers.
A lot of readers (at last count, 2) have been concerned about Now Husband's dishwasher adventure. LBL knows without a doubt that at least 1,000 readers would have been concerned, had there not been comment fraud which prevented these folks from weighing in. For them, she brings everyone up to date.
While the family enjoyed the lake house, NH was at home, awaiting delivery of the dishwasher. Instead, he had a call from Best Buy to inform him that there was no dishwasher available and no date at which one might materialize. NH did what any rational person like him would do on Black Friday: He drove to Best Buy to complain.
LBL must now insert an aside: NH is a man who won't go to the movies on the weekend (too crowded), won't take road trips during the week (too much traffic), won't go shopping in the afternoon (too close to rush hour) and complains about crossing the bridge into DC to go to a restaurant (we have great restaurants closer to home).
But, there he was in the shopping mania mix, intent on procuring a dishwasher. What he did was to order another dishwasher (more expensive) in exchange for the promise of a speedy delivery. Satisfied, he stepped over all the fallen bodies and iPhones littering the floor of Best Buy, exited the store and drove home in record-breaking traffic. The next day, the originally-ordered dishwasher was delivered. NH refused delivery.
LBL returned home from the lake house to find the old dishwasher exactly where she had left it. While she tried to concentrate on doing several loads of laundry and putting away several large bags of unused food items that everyone had divvied up, as well as numerous rolls of toilet paper (hey, we paid for them so we took them), NH related every single detail about the dishwasher adventure. LBL grunted "uh huh" "oh" and "wow" at intervals that she believed were appropriate to the story.
The following day, while she attempted to recover from her family vacation, while wandering through the house, still believing she heard babies crying, NH attempted a discussion about the washing machine. LBL listened patiently for several minutes, then requested that NH save any planned procurement of a new washing machine for such time as there would be another family gathering.
LBL leaves tomorrow for Charleston, where one of her daughters-in-law will be having a baby shower. She then flies directly to Florida to visit two close friends. She is entirely sure that, during her absence, there will be ample time for NH to reassess all large and small appliances on the premises. She only asks that he leave the coffee maker, or, at least, have a replacement on the kitchen counter, ready to brew. She would also like to keep her electric mixer, a shower gift from her first marriage (1969) and her cookie gun (circa 1975 and last used in the early 80s). Everything else is up for grabs.
Earlier on Huff/Post50:
