Hello friends…
Hello {{first_name}} ,
You are in for a treat. First, I have three fun articles to share from guests on the show. A story of love against the odds, a story of adventure and a story of community. I hope that you enjoy them and the offers from the guests direct to you. Also, if you’re a person interested in podcasting I gathered some friends for a panel and asked them: What is a Podcast? You can watch that here.
Sometimes I am so entertained by my own life that I write short humorous essays. I have one to share with you this week.
Did you know that something can be too wet to go into your clothes dryer?
Well it can.
Would you like to ask me how I know?
Sit back and relax kids as I share the story of the washing room mini-flood of the spring of 26.
This story begins in the way all household mini-diasters start, there was a noise.
A noise that was unignorable and also due to one of the great mysteries of the natural universe apparently silent to the ears of my husband*.
The next clue that something was amiss was that when I checked on the noise I saw that water was flowing out of the dryer and onto the floor.
Yes. Water was dripping out over the lint catcher and there was a puddle on the floor.
I hit stop on the machine. I opened the door to see a large comforter from a bed. I went to pull it out and it was heavy. Maybe 20-30 lbs. And soaking wet…when I moved it from the dryer to the utility sink it spilled water on me and on the floor the whole way. As I took the two steps back between the sink and the dryer I observed that the washer read: balance err…you have to be patient to read it because it only displays 3 letters at a time.
Now the puzzle was taking shape in my mind. There has been an attempt to clean bedding. It is not going well.
I look into the dryer to investigate and assess what (tf?) is going on. I have seen a great many things in my clothing dryers over the years. I have 4 kids - 2 stepkids and 2 kids and in the last 30 years there have been thousands of loads of laundry. I don’t count or keep track but I have found Crayons, toys, chapstick, food, paper, rocks, ipods, airpods … a lot of airpods. Many things have ended up in the dryer. We once had a tragic episode where I ruined a favorite pair of toddler shoes in a dryer. But I have never before looked in the dryer and seen a puddle of water.
How much water, Amy?
That is an excellent question, thanks for asking.
It was about 3 towels worth of water. Not beach towels but the floor washing towels that I store in the utility room. It took 3 of those to absorb the water. Which feels like a lot. And once the water was absorbed I just turned on the dryer to dry them. Which gave me a chuckle.
It took 3 more towels to pick up the water on the floor.
Like I said, a mini flood.
So far everything was pretty straightforward but now I had a sopping wet large comforter, a washing machine with an error message and I admit it took a second before I had a plan for what to do next. Basically I manually tried to squeeze as much water out as I could in the sink. Then I wrestled the comforter back into the washer. Tried to get it evenly spaced in the drum. Turned it off to reset the error. And then set it to drain and rinse cycle. And I stood there and held the machine physically with my massive size and impressive strength while it got up to full spinning speed to keep it from going off balance again.
Surprisingly and more important; luckily for me this worked.
(*as a note - there are two sides to every story. Related to the mention of husband’s hearing. My husband read this essay, laughed and he would like you to know that his version of this story is that he heard the noise…but ignored it.)
Table of Contents
Community | Secrets to Making Friends as an Adult in a New Town
Pallavi Pande
There is a particular kind of loneliness that has no clean name. It is not the loneliness of being alone in a room. It is the loneliness of being surrounded by people who don't share your language, your food, the specific weight of what it means to raise children far from where you were raised yourself. For Pallavi Pande, that feeling landed hard when she moved to Portland, Oregon a decade ago. She is a South Asian woman, a mother of two, in one of the least racially diverse major cities in the United States.
She did not find a ready-made community waiting for her. So she built one. What started as a single Facebook post has grown into the Portland Brown Mommies, a 2,000-plus member group of South Asian women in Oregon that has been running for 10 years — hosting monthly events, connecting families across generations, and quietly changing lives in ways Pallavi still hears about through text messages and phone calls.
Special offer from Pallavi for the audience:
Use coupon code DTOCS10 at checkout on our website - https://www.dtocs.com, for 10% off and free shipping
Parkinson’s Disease Caregiving | Building Connection When Chronic Illness Steals It Away
There is a particular kind of loneliness that comes from caring for someone you love — not the loneliness of being alone, but the loneliness of being beside someone who can no longer quite reach you back. It is quiet and relentless, and it is one of the least-discussed realities of Parkinson's caregiving.
Terri Pease knows this from the inside. She met her husband online, fell for a man who wrote beautiful letters by hand and had sailed since he was twelve years old, and married him knowing full well that Parkinson's disease was already part of the deal. His dating profile said so. What the dating profile couldn't say was what it would actually feel like for her to watch a disease steal, piece by piece, the person she loved while she was still standing right there.
Terri Pease
Special offer from Terri for you:
Her book: Love, Dignity and Parkinson's: from Care Partner to Caregiver available here: https://bookshop.org/a/87491/9798986700106
🥰 Community Spotlight
Thank you Jessi for these kind words about the show. We think you’re pretty great too!
I appreciate the blend of this show. It takes on some serious topics but also has a lightheartedness to it as well. I feel like I get a valuable lesson and also a laugh.
Would you like to see your name here? Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or just hit reply and share your feedback
Solo Hiking | What Happens When You Step Outside Your Comfort Zone After 50
Belinda Coker
There is a version of yourself that exists before you look in the mirror and don't recognize who you see. Belinda Coker knows that version well. At 55, she was overweight, exhausted, and quietly mourning the adventurous woman she used to be. What happened next was a single decision to sign up for a hiking meetup group. This set off a chain reaction that would take her from the rainforests of Southeast Queensland to the Arctic Circle in Greenland, and eventually into a hypothermia-threatening storm on a volcanic island in the Canaries.
Belinda's story is about more than physical fitness or outdoor adventure. It's about the moment a woman stops giving every last piece of herself away and does something meaningful for no one but herself.
Special offer from Belinda for you:
The House Sitting Collective, - House Sitting Courses 20% off all courses (Retail Value $79 & $197)
https://housesittingcollective.com/. CODE: ADULTING
📕 🎧 Things Worth Your Time
This is where we share the cool suggestions for books, podcasts, gadgets that make life better and other fun stuff that our guests share during their interviews.
Pallavi suggests: setting up a family group chat just to plan fun trips with each other.
Terri suggests: Treating yourself with a nice piece of jewelry that you will really enjoy.
Belinda suggests: if you visit Australia steer clear of the Magpies. She says they can be scary.
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What laundry or other household adventures have had you thinking…omgosh what in the world is happening here? Hit reply and share your story.
We’ll be back in your inbox next week.