I was talking the other day about going Green and telling the tale my father admitted to me recently. His wife won’t let him use the dishwasher in their condo anymore. She claims since its just the two of them he should hand wash the dishes. (Him.. since he’s retired and she’s working still.)
Not an unreasonable request, no. But because Los Angeles is technically a desert she’s taken it to another level. He can’t just fill the sink, wash the dishes and be done. No, he’s got three tubs of standing water in his kitchen sink. One for soaking dishes in. One for washing the dishes in. And one for rinsing the dishes in.
He tells me this with irritated exasperation in his voice. Complaining.. “I can’t really use my sink anymore.”
And I’m no help. I laugh at him and tell him to just tell her no, you’re not going to do it anymore. Because its what I’d do in that situation. But I know he won’t. Is it because he loves her? Possibly, but its more likely because its easier to give in to the dominant personality in a relationship.
Now that I’ve only got my kids every other week, I don’t fill the dishwasher enough to run it daily or every other day like I’d do with them here. I don’t cook as much, either.. producing even fewer dishes to go in the dishwasher.
The other day I ran out of forks! Did I hand wash a few forks to get me by? Nope. I put “forks” on my shopping list and made a batch of chocolate chip cookies to produce enough dishes to make a full load to run the machine!
I can’t decide yet if that qualifies as clever, ingenious (!) or just lazy!