Wednesday, January 15, 2014

As I began my biannual ironing this morning......What's that? Don't I iron more than twice a year? Not if I can help it, I don't, but the napkins and placemats are stacking up and must be done. Anyway, I picked up the can of Niagara starch I bought recently. I noticed two things right away:  one: the can is a bit too large for arthritic fingers  to grip easily and two: the can is so slippery that arthritic hands have a hard time hanging on to it. A word to the wise is sufficient, Niagara; make the cans smaller in diameter or put ridges on them. Okay?

Along those same lines, I'm reminded of this:   My mother-in-law had a closet full of very nice towels and washcloths. They had been gifts; lush, thick, thirsty towels from famous designers and they languished in the linen closet instead of being put to use. When I asked her why, her response was that the thick toweling was hard for her small, arthritic hands to hold and she preferred to use older towels and cloths that had been washed many times. They are more pliable - and now that I am experiencing the same thing - I know what she meant. even though I have long fingers and it should be easier for me. Luckily, I have so many towels that belonged to my parents (from the 60's and 70's) that are smaller and thinner, but oh so absorbent and easy to handle. In fact, many of them look new, but still feel flexible. I wish all problems were this easy to solve. 

American Idol is back on and I am enjoying the first night. JLO says "yes" to nearly everyone and Harry doesn't say yes often enough, although he may be the best judge of musical talent when it comes down to voice quality. I like this group of judges together, but I wish ABC wouldn't play up the "buddies" thing so early in the season. These three may know each other well - or maybe not  (I don't know) - but surely they are not palling around together all the time outside of the show, so I hope they don't try to make it look as though they are. M'kay? 

That's all I have tonight... what's bugging you lately? 


7 comments:

Star said...

You iron more than I do !

Anonymous said...

When we bought this house in 2010, I didn't notice that the laundry room had a little cupboard that opens up to a small and incredibly useful ironing board. It folds down out of the wall, is about half the size of a regular board, but works just fine. I don't use it often, but when I do, I think it's the coolest invention!

This persistent drought here in California is bugging me. Dry dry dry.

Moon said...

I don't iron much either but I do want one of those nifty iron little boards that folds down like robin has, I've been keeping an eye open for one at flee markets etc, I don't mind the ironing, its lugging out the darned board and setting things up that I find annoying lol

Nancy said...



Judy,

Years ago my SIL had the problem of ironing napkins all figured out.

Her husband, my brother, insisted on starched napkins and this is how she solved the problem

There was a lovely restaurant near then that had beautiful linen napkins at the tables and also a basketful for drying your hands in the Ladies Room, and she insisted that they go to dinner there every Saturday.

Every week she would put ten napkins in her purse and take them home and use them at dinner.Then every Saturday she returned them to the "used" basket in the ladies lounge and took a new supply.

This went on for years until they moved away. No one ever knew what she was doing and they lost no napkins and everybody was happy and she never had to iron....

Gilly said...

I don'r iron more than I can help, just place mats and napkins, like you. And I bought some gorgeously thick towels a while ago, but they are just too think to manipulate, arthritic fingers or no! So they are languishing at the back of the cupboard, which is a great shame. But I did find some lovely soft, pliable towels in a shop which was closing down, so I bought three sets at rock bottom prices!

Granny Annie said...

Not a day goes by that I do not understand my parents more and more. I know why they did this and why they did that and why they complained of certain aches and pains because I now have them all. Wish I had been a tad bit more sympathetic.

Ginnie said...

Hi Judy: thanks. I am writing for the UNlimiters website and it's my job to write a weekly blog entry about things that help seniors. I can use some of the stuff that you wrote about here !