Clean Clothes in the Laundry Basket

Taki and Haiku enjoy climbing into a laundry basket that contains warm clothes out of the dryer.  Today, early afternoon, I brought a basket of warm clothes into the house, and Haiku claimed the basket.  I ran errands, and when I arrived home, Taki was in the basket.  That makes sense, because if Haiku left the basket, the clothing would be warm where she had been lying. A while later, Haiku was back in the basket.  This has happened before, and sometimes, the cat in the basket stays there until late in the evening.  Mostly what is in this basket is bed linens, but there are other items in there also.  It would not be the first time that I have slept on the sofa because the cats slept on the bed linens in the laundry basket and it was too late to make the bed. 

Laundry

I had two baskets of laundry to put up tonight.  I had one in the computer room, where I was binge watching "Blue Bloods" and the other was in the bedroom. Haiku jumped into  the basket in the computer room, and when I moved into the bedroom to work on that basket of laundry, Taki was in the other one.  I never know how long they will stay in a basket, but sometimes it is hours.  

Well, Haiku blinked first, so I worked first on the basket in the computer room, and later, on the basket in the bedroom.  I had resolved myself to spend the night on the sofa, if need be, but it was not necessary.

The Lake Lodge Laundromat and Laundromat Etiquette

The Lake Lodge has a self-service laundromat for its lodge and cabin guests.  I needed to do one load of laundry before returning home, and since we had an early day today, my traveling companion suggested I do the laundry after we returned to the cabin, in the late afternoon or very early evening. So, about 5 PM we went to the Lodge: my traveling companion drove me, which was very gracious but unnecessary. She shopped, and read in the lobby while I did laundry.  My traveling companion was surprised that I would sit with my laundry. 

When I arrived, I was the only person using the facility.  A few minutes later, a gentleman came in, with a load of laundry, followed by a young man with more, and they did their laundry together.  Mom (I presume) showed up with dryer sheets later on. The loaded their clothes in the washing machine, noted the time it would take to finish the load, and left.  About 5:45 many people showed up at the laundry, including a few who decided to turn away, presumably to come back later.  So, all of the machines were full, one was out of service, and my clothes were in the dryer.  One patron approached me to learn if I belonged to the newly stopped machine of the gentleman-young man group.  I said no, so she proceeded to take the clothes out of the washing machine, put it in a laundry cart, and load her clothes.  I watched her to be sure that was all she did.  The two men returned not one or two minutes later, to learn their clothes had been moved into a laundry cart.  There was a brief tension, but all turned out okay.  This sort of scenario is one of many why I do not like to leave my clothing at a laundromat. If tempers had risen, I would have been glad to step up and say “I watched, and all she did was unload.” 

So, who, if anyone is at fault here:  Does the patron have an obligation to return in a timely way, so the clothing can be moved and the machine available for the next patron?  What is timely?  The machine was still finishing its cycle when the woman came into the laundry.  So, she knew it was not long since it was done.  Does she have an obligation to wait for the owner of the wet clothing?  How long?  She did not wait even 5 minutes. 

I do not want anyone messing with my clothing in a laundromat.  So, I will just stay.  As I told my traveling companion, it would not even cross my mind to leave my clothing unattended in a laundromat.

Oh, and by the way, another piece of etiquette.  I emptied the filter screen when I loaded my clothing, into the dryer, and it was obvious the previous user did not.  I forgot to empty it when I was done.  My bad. But in the process of cleaning the filter, I discovered 3 pennies in the screen.  I opened the door to the dryer above the one I was using and found a dime and a penny.  I did not feel obliged to report this to lost and found.

Contented

Haiku is my easy going cat.  I had her for years before I ever heard or saw her object to something.  She usually gets upset when the bed is torn apart, while I am washing and drying linens.  Today, she did not seem too distressed. And, when I brought the laundry basket to the bedroom, put it on the bed, and started sorting laundry, she promptly hopped into the basket and went to sleep.  That is okay.  I do not mind doing laundry late, and on one occasion when she did this, I left the laundry till the next day, and just slept on the sofa,

Bed Linens are Heavy

It is a little after 10:30 PM, and I just finished doing laundry, which included replacing the sheets on my bed.  I used to have a schedule of doing laundry earlier in the weekend, or at least, earlier in the day.  But my schedule has changed. For the most part, I like the change. But the delay of doing laundry until later on Sunday night is not my favorite part of my new schedule.

It really does not matter what time of day or night this occurs, but manipulating bed linens takes a certain amount of strength.  I noticed it more tonight, because my back is bothering me.  I have noticed this off and on while I have been suffering from back pain and sciatica. Wet laundry, especially wet linens can be very tiring to move. I can do it, and usually, I "power through" to get it done.  But it aggravates the pain in my lower back.  Usually, this aggravation is not severe, and it has dissipated by the next morning.

I am in hopes that the aggravation this time will be dissipated by the morning.

Laundry and Haiku

I brought the laundry in from the dryer earlier this evening, around 6:30 or so.  Haiku almost immediately climbed into the basket and dozed on the warm clothes.  Here it is after 11 PM, and she has not budged.  I brought in a second basket of laundry, and made the bed, and put the other clothes away.  But the clothes in the first basket are still there. I would like to put the clothes away. But Haiku has seen fit to take up residence on the clothes, so she is being allowed to enjoy her pleasure. I can always put clothes away.