Irritating Things

Today I am irritated. I woke up exhausted, and struggled through the morning before succumbing to a power nap of insufficient duration. I think the smell of fabric softener kept me awake last night.

You see, since our house has sold, things have been breaking. First it was the hot water heater (confusingly named, as a friend pointed out, as hot water should not need to be heated). Then it was our RO system. There are probably several other things that went awry, but the most notable was the dryer. So what? Hang the clothes out on a clothes line, like they did in days of old. No big deal. But clothes that haven't been through the dryer with its accompanying dryer sheets are not soft and fluffy. No. They are coarse and crinkly.

But I, being a woman of vast and varied experiences, recalled my mother using liquid fabric softener, so requested that JBL procure some at the Ace where he also picked up the clothes line and pins. Following the directions on the Downy bottle, I put half of a cap-full in the washer's dispenser. The first time. This load smelled vaguely of fabric softener. For the second load, I was feeling emboldened and followed the instructions more closely, 'topping off' the softener in the dispenser with water. I basically took the softener cap and ran it under the water filling the basin and dumped it into the dispenser. This rinsing-out effect of the cap somehow quadrupled the amount of softener, or somehow magically enhanced the strength of its perfumes. The shirt I slept in (and am still wearing, because that's how I roll on days when I work from home) smells so powerfully of softener that I want to pass out. I want to, but I can't because the scent is so strong. See my conundrum?

At least the shirt is incredibly soft.

(And don't get me started about the crackers I ate for lunch - from a box that apparently was dropped several times - that broke into crumby shards every time I tried to schmear them with peanut butter. Or the fact that I have this for an earworm today.)