Ovens, washers, toilets

March 30 – Spent the morning finishing up travel plans & cleaning. John arrived home around 2pm. Nice to see him. If you recall we were having a leaking toilet problem. It was actually overflowing from the tank. They maintenance guy, Jerry, had to come back several times & change a few things, but today he is sure he found and fixed the problem. Sometimes renting is a good thing.

The weather has gotten hotter and the humidity way up. Now I remember why I didn’t get into the habit of doing much cooking when I first got here. The kitchen in not air conditioned so it is stifling in there. The stove has not gotten any better, it just frustrates me. It takes it about 30 minutes to heat up to 350 (I bought an oven thermometer when I was home this winter because doing the conversion just doesn’t work). If I crank it all the way up, the highest temp I can get is close to 400. That does it for most things, it is just the heating up time that is upsetting. Then the kitchen is really hot for a very long time. Just not worth it. John wanted to cook something the other night, so I said just turn on the oven to get it warmed up. He looked at me with his puppy dog eyes & I realized that he still has not learned how to work the oven. It is all pictures (not necessarily obvious ones) & lots of choices, so rather confusing. I remembered that it took me about a month to figure it out & start using it. The microwave, forget it!!

This made me recall how much trouble I had with the washer when I first got here. I couldn’t figure out why our underwear was getting destroyed and everything was running. You have to set the temperature when you do the wash. I finally figured out that I’d been doing the laundry at temp of 90. This didn’t seem to bad, at home I generally did everything on warm. But this isn’t Fahrenheit, and 90 is almost boiling. No wonder I was destroying our clothing. John finally figured out the washer while I was away in the states this winter, but I had to send him detailed instructions. A load (about 1/3 load according to what I’m used to) still take almost 4 hours, but I’ve learned to put it on before bed. Still most stuff doesn’t come out dry.

So, be glad for good old American technology when it comes to the kitchen & laundry. AND always remember what to take note of which temperature scale you are using. We have some lovely gray & blue underwear to remind me of my stupidity. At least I didn’t have any red cloths that I washed back then!!