La versión en español está después de la versión en inglés.
My sister Dale died in 1981, five months before I met San Geraldo. She died in March and her birthday was in September. For years after, those two months were miserable. I obsessed over her death, her life, and my failings as her brother. After many years, I stopped obsessing and simply thought about her around the specific days (but was still depressed).
In recent years, I’m often not even consciously aware of the month or day. Still, they can be dreary months to get through. It never once dawned on me in September why I would just suddenly be buried in darkness. And then, finally, when the month was ending I remembered. So, I’ve survived another September.
I planned to go out for a great walk yesterday but my stomach didn’t cooperate in the morning. In the afternoon, heavy rain was predicted. It didn’t last long, but it did arrive. Although, I don’t know if it rated as heavy. I don’t know what today will bring. Not more rain.
I’ve got some errands to run, some laundry to do, and a chat with Wilma in Belize which makes things better no matter how the rest of the day pans out. The excitement over the last few days has been the dishwasher.
I stopped in a shop I never visit to pick up more dishwasher liquid. The container was labeled lavavajillas, which means dishwasher (machine). It was the only one I found labeled lavavajillas. Every other product was clearly for hand washing. Besides, I’ve been buying these products for 15 years. How could I go wrong? Another word for dishwasher is lavaplatos (wash plates), but I’ve never seen or heard that used where we’ve lived.
The first morning I opened the dishwasher to find it completely filled with bubbles. It was beautiful and I don’t know why I didn’t take a picture. I ran the machine again thinking the remnants of soap would be gone. The next time I opened the door, it was half-filled with bubbles. I ended up removing all the dishes and washing them in the sink. I then ran the dishwasher two more times. This morning when I opened the door there were no bubbles. I think it may be safe for use with the correct dishwasher gel (that we now have).
San Geraldo went to hotel and restaurant management school. As part of the program, he worked as a dishwasher in a restaurant. He lasted one night and never went back to work or school (and hasn’t often washed a dish).
Come to think of it, the two times Dale ran our parents’ dishwasher (when they were away and we were left home alone), she flooded the kitchen. It only flooded those two times, so she never ran the dishwasher again. I guess I should have gone to Spanish dishwashing school.
Mi hermana Dale murió en 1981, cinco meses antes de conocer a San Geraldo. Murió en marzo y su cumpleaños era en septiembre. Durante los años siguientes, esos dos meses fueron una tortura. Me obsesionaba con su muerte, su vida y mis propios fallos como hermano. Pasados muchos años, dejé de obsesionarme y simplemente pensaba en ella en esas fechas señaladas (aunque seguía sintiéndome deprimido).
Últimamente, a menudo ni siquiera soy consciente del mes o del día en que estoy. Aun así, pueden ser meses difíciles de sobrellevar. Nunca me daba cuenta en pleno septiembre de por qué, de repente, me sentía sumido en la oscuridad. Y entonces, por fin, cuando el mes llegaba a su fin, lo recordaba. Así que he sobrevivido a otro septiembre.
Ayer tenía planeado dar un buen paseo, pero mi estómago no colaboró por la mañana. Para la tarde se pronosticaban lluvias intensas. No duraron mucho, pero llegaron. Aunque no sé si se podían calificar de intensas. No sé qué nos deparará el día de hoy. No lloverá.
Tengo algunos recados que hacer, ropa que lavar y una charla pendiente con Wilma, que está en Belice; eso siempre mejora las cosas, independientemente de cómo transcurra el resto del día. La novedad de los últimos días ha sido el lavavajillas.
Entré en una tienda que no suelo visitar para comprar más detergente. El envase llevaba la etiqueta «lavavajillas», que es el término para la máquina. Era el único producto con esa etiqueta; todos los demás eran claramente para lavar a mano. Además, llevo 15 años comprando estos productos. ¿Cómo iba a equivocarme? Otra forma de llamar al aparato es «lavaplatos», pero nunca he visto ni oído usar esa palabra donde hemos vivido.
La primera mañana, al abrir el lavavajillas, me lo encontré lleno de espuma. Era una imagen preciosa; no sé por qué no le hice una foto. Puse la máquina en marcha de nuevo pensando que así se eliminarían los restos de jabón. La siguiente vez que abrí la puerta, estaba medio lleno de espuma. Al final saqué toda la vajilla y la lavé en el fregadero. Luego puse el lavavajillas en marcha dos veces más. Esta mañana, al abrir la puerta, no había espuma. Creo que ya se puede usar con el gel adecuado (que ya tenemos).
San Geraldo estudió gestión hotelera y de restauración. Como parte del programa, trabajó lavando platos en un restaurante. Solo aguantó una noche y no volvió ni al trabajo ni a los estudios (y tampoco ha lavado muchos platos desde entonces).
Pensándolo bien, las dos veces que Dale puso en marcha el lavavajillas de nuestros padres (cuando ellos estaban fuera y nos quedábamos solos en casa), inundó la cocina. Solo ocurrió esas dos veces, así que nunca volvió a usar el lavavajillas. Supongo que debería haber ido a una escuela de lavado de platos en España.
• La tormenta avanza rápidamente desde el norte y el oeste.
• Las nubes empiezan a disiparse.
• Un arcoíris sobre el paisaje acuático de San Geraldo.
• Ya es un jardín frondoso. Ayer incluso podó algunas de las plantas.
Click the thumbnails to enlarge.
Haz clic en las miniaturas para ampliar.
This post made me think of when tricksters put dish soap or whatever in public fountains to create mountains of foamy bubbles. What a mess!
Debra:
And that’s just what it looked like, except for the perfect box shape of the dishwasher.
At least it didn’t foam out onto the floor, I have seen that happen. My mother quipped that she didn’t need a dishwasher, she had four of them (though I can’t remember my older brothers ever being told to do the dishes.) The second winter we spent in Florida the condo had a dishwasher, she used it, and she was hooked. She never went without one again.
David:
Yes! I was so relieved to see it contained.
Maybe the bubbles were Dale’s way of saying, “I around, little brother.”
Bob:
I LOVE that thought.
November used to be like your September. Full of sisters’ deaths and birthdays and late parents’ wedding anniversary, as well as religious days. But now it’s easier, many years later.
Dishwashers! I have not had one for many years.
It was a common story, one ran for years and years just fine, then stopped.
The first replacement ran till the end of the warranty period then went on fire when the heating element detached, burned through the housing, and charred the floor underneath.
Its replacement lasted till the end of the warranty period, then the pipe burst, flooding the floor. This was while my husband was at home in his last days, quadriplegic, and I decided I couldn’t risk any more excitement.
I’ve done dishes by hand quite peacefully since then!
Anonymous:
In more than 50 years in her apartment, my mother replaced the dishwasher only once. Amazing. Same with her bed and the refrigerator. Appalling.
That was me, Boud, forgot to say
It boggles my mind how the body remembers such anniversaries. Or is it the heart? Whatever it is, it’s so often unrecognized by the conscious brain, leaving us completely baffled as to why we can’t crawl out from under that damn darkness.
Gosh. Music used to be so pretty, didn’t it? Can’t say I miss it.
Mary Moon:
It is fascinating how the mind and body work. The song does have some depth, but all it sounds to me is corny.
Can’t wait til the first fish goes into that wonderful home.
jacquie:
jacqui:
Neither can we. Perhaps two more weeks.
I can’t comment on a dishwasher, as we only had one briefly in a shared house we were in, but our washing machine has overflowed (“over-foamed”?) on a couple of occasions, inevitably because the ratio between liquid and load has been miscalculated.
Dramatic photos of the “storm-that-never-happened”! And the tank is beautiful already!
Jx
PS I, too, “survived” September – thirty years since my late partner Garry’s death – without much fuss. I was planning to blog about it, but then I heard a little voice from the beyond shouting “no!”, so that was that. I raised a toast or two with people who knew him, and that was sufficient.
Jon:
Oh, I have an overflowing washing machine story to tell. Good old San Geraldo. So sorry about your September but glad you’re now able to make it through without much fuss.
So what kind of soap did you use? There is a big fountain in Houston and every now and then as a prank someone would soap the fountain so it would be brimming with bubbles. They finally put something in the water to prevent bubbles so that was the end of that prank.
ellen abbott:
The soap is a cheap brand I didn’t know. It behaved like dish soap used for handwashing. Those idiots who put bubbles in public fountains should be required to pay for their removal and forced to do the cleaning.
There is a good chance the dishwasher saw an opportunity saw the chance to try out a scenario for the sci-fi/horror novel it’s been working on “Attack of the Bubble-Monster”. Since it’s likely not AI equipped, it has to run scenarios in physical reality. I ADORE stormy skies and love that ominous cloud photo. BTW, did you know that among the ancients having a rainbow over your aquarium was a very good omen…
wickedhamster:
So grateful the bubbles were completely contained in the machine.
Among the ancients? I’d love to see one of those ancient aquariums. How did the glass hold up?
The song from the uniquely glorious Doris D. can’t help but bring me the unfortunate recollection of when I was about four-ish we youngest ones were bathed in turn in a portable tub in front of the living-room fire before the entire family. It’s needless going into detail about when my turn came to be dunked into the suds, I unintentionally gave rise to much hilarity – and teased by my eldest brother singing this song. Oh, the utter embarrassment!
Raybeard:
Are you forever blowing bubbles? (Are you still embarrassed?)
No, I’m not – simply because it’s must be well over 10 years since I last had a bath, after one time when I could hardly get myself out of the bath tub – culminating in a prolonged near panic. Very scary. No, it’s showers only now, therefore no more bubble-blowing. :-0
I worked in a dining hall dish room at college that could potentially serve 1600 students per meal. Dirty items came in by conveyer belt, and you sorted quickly: utensils, dishes, drinkware, small trays, etc. to go into baskets in the industrial washer. I remember utensils were the messiest. Near the end of mealtime, after the big rush of individual meal items, came the HUGE (1/3 to 1/2 my height and wider than me) rectangular serving trays. Unwieldy, but so satisfying to pull them off clean and warm at the end of the cycle. And I don’t remember us having gloves. Could that be true??? Olivia
Olivia:
What a glamorous job. Gloves would have been so uncool!
Tha tank is really coming along!!!! It looks great!!!!!
And I have done the same with a dishwasher. Just be glad the suds didn’t come out and all over the kitchen!!!!! It happend to me once and it was a MESS to clean up!!!!!
Mistress Maddie:
Yes. I was truly relieved nothing leaked.
Ahhh okay, yes… lavaplatos… that’s the word I’ve learned. It must be more Latin-american. In French, the word for dishes (as in the ensemble of dishware for eating off of, and, when you’re washing it, the pots and pans, too) also starts with a v… la vaisselle, so the word lavavajillas connected for me (the French word is lave-vaisselle) (actually no hyphen), even though I’ve never heard it before, and was thinking, “Gee, I thought that I knew the word for dishwasher.” Ha! So, thanks for mentioning lavaplatos, too.
(I’m chuckling here… this gives you an idea of what goes through my head while I’m reading your blog every day 🙂 Also…. I never ever tire of that amazing view you have! And, the new view of Jerry’s aquarium!)
Judy C:
So glad I give you important things to ponder.
It must be very hard at times thinking of your sister. I simply cannot imagine the grief that you felt when she passed, and the grief you still must feel. I am very close to my sister, she is six years younger than me. I cannot imagine my life without her in it. Take care.
Michael:
I was already seriously damaged when Dale died. When I was young, she was my constant savior. We were unimaginably close. I thought I’d never get over that grief. And, what was worse, was that people kept telling me grief had an expiration date. One friend thought I should be over my “grieving period” after a month. I of course thought there was something seriously wrong with me. It took a long time before it simply became a normal part of life.
I don’t think grief ever really goes away. I think over time things become less raw, but the grief is still there. This song compares grief to glitter, it never really goes away. https://youtu.be/sb7K_KvYpvs?si=kM23HDrWVeiUa60f
Love watching a storm come in, but also love seeing it go.
Isn’t it a relief, in a way, when we finally realize why we were feeling so miserable for so long. Happy you figured it out.
Jim:
I wish there had been more to that storm. It was beautiful to watch. And, yes, it’s fascinating what a relief it is simply realize what’s going on in your head (and body).
Well, that’s curious about the dishwashing soap. Maybe it’s meant for a different variety of dishwasher? Weird.
Steve,
I’ll ask Merchi. I’m sure I’m just missing something.