An Update on the War Against Clean Clothes

Listening to: Hindi music videos

Mood: Hungry. Shut up, that is too a mood.

There are days when I really, really hate living in India. But don’t tell anyone, ok? I don’t want to hear anyone say “I told you so!”

Today was one of those days. India has a thing with power cuts; I’m sure you can imagine with so many people trying to use a limited resource. Most people and bigger complexes, like the one I live in, have backup generators that supply limited power if the regular current goes out.  It’s both a great help and a source of endless frustration.

The problem with the backup power supply is the limited part. Certain things in our house take up a lot of power. See water heaters, microwaves and, unfortunately, washing machines. If you try to use said appliances, it overloads the system and everything shuts off for a few seconds. If you’re not smart enough to turn off the appliance tripping the system, it will continue tripping until you shut it off. This is a ginormous problem for my router. Every time the power goes out, I have to wait for it to reconnect. Addicted? Says who?

This past week, our power has being going on and off like a junkie who can’t find a steady crack supplier. Of course,  the power only seems to want to switch off when I’m trying to get something done. Like eat breakfast. And then I get all stabby when I realize that I have to wait for the regular power to come back on so I can make coffee. No coffee=irrationally angry Becky G. I am so not making oatmeal and coffee on the stove. Or when I’m trying to take a shower or give my daughters a shower. When you only have 1 hour in which to bathe two children and the power won’t cooperate, it’s enough to make you want to just leave already.

But the king of all kickers is when I’m trying to do laundry. I generally do laundry around 10 am, or when I’m finished crawling out of bed and making coffee. I do this so the laundry will be done when my housekeeper comes over so she can hang it up on the insufficient wooden rack.  I will never, ever be an early morning person. Ever. This is about the time when the power starts acting funny. There’s no logic or rhythm to it, it goes on and off randomly.  The irritating thing is I can pause the washer if the backup power goes on. But it turns off (i.e. wherever in the cycle it was is lost) after a certain amount of time if you leave it on pause, so it’s not on pause indefinitely. The power never seems to come back before the pause time runs out. I love my washer, but it doesn’t have a cycle dial. It has a colors, whites, etc. dial. So you can’t go back to where in the cycle it was and just continue the wash. You have to start over. Currently, the load in the washer today has been started 3 times. It only has a half hour left; I’m hoping it can get through this time.

There aren’t too many things that make me want to just pack up and go home, but this is one.

On another note of interesting things happening on this side of the world in my house, they fixed the bathroom sewer smell problem. Apparently, a waste water facility in my apartment complex exploded (no, I’m not kidding) and contaminated all the previously cleaned water, hence the smell. I’m totally thrilled about this!

Another not so awesome thing is that ants have built some kind of home in my wall. Their front door is right underneath my bathroom door in a corner. I see them going in and out of this quarter inch crack all the time. They don’t really bother anyone unless you have children who forget to put away a vanilla yogurt cup overnight and you wake up to about 80 bazillion ants on your kitchen table having an orgy. Then it kind of becomes a problem. At least they’re not the evil red bitey ones that live outside. I hate those things.  But we keep the house really clean and I will get to the store and buy ant spray one of these days.

Becky


(Actually India, I don’t hate you. Take me back, I promise to never say such things again. Please don’t take away all the yummy chaats and byriani!)