No Clean Underwear--Again???

nderwear.

None clean.

Again.

Yes, in today's Eldersitting blog post, I'm airing Mom and Dad's dirty laundry.

Dad had a heart attack in November. They put in a stent the next day, and he's recovered quite well for an 83 year old with COPD! Since then, he's had cardiac rehab three days a week. In Big Town. About 18 miles away. And he hasn't driven in the intervening months. So, I drive him there. Did I mention it's three days a week?

So, three days a week driving to cardiac rehab. Another one or two for physical therapy or various other appointments. Plus, I've been sick a couple of times, myself. (Unfortunately, I think the mild winter, which I've thoroughly enjoyed otherwise, has something to do with it.) Between all these things, I have fallen behind on housework. Very far behind!

One of the things I'm farthest behind on is laundry. It's actually one of my favorite jobs to put off in the first place, so having no time is a great excuse to not get it done. I finally got Dad to let me know when he takes the second to last pair of underwear from his drawer. In the meantime, I had to buy some extras for him. At first, I never had to worry about Mom running out--she had more pairs than Dad, and since I had to wash his, I washed hers, too, and she didn't run out. But, now that I've bought him more underwear... you guessed it, now Mom sometimes runs out. And she's not yet trained to let me know when that happens!

Today, I bought her a package of underwear. Ten pairs. That oughta last awhile.

Of course, by then Dad will have forgotten to let me know when he's nearly out, so I'll have to buy him some more. And then Mom will forget to let me know when she's nearly out, so I'll have to buy her some more. And so on. And so on. And so on.

I can see it now: we have a large capacity HE washing machine that holds four times as many clothes as the old washer did. And there's going to come a time when I fill it to capacity with nothing but underwear.