Quite a few years ago when my sister was having a house built she told Mr. Munro and I she intended to get a dishwasher. “What do you need one of those for?” we asked, making definite scoffing sounds. “It’s no problem handwashing the dishes each night. It takes hardly any time at all.”
My sister said maybe that was the case but she still intended getting a dishwasher. It was bad enough cooking dinner when she arrived home from work. Adding dishes to the equation was too much. She duly got her dishwasher, and Mr. Munro and I smugly continued doing our dishes by hand.
Then we moved into a new house, one that came with a brand new dishwasher. Hubby and I looked at each other. “It would be silly not to use it,” Mr. Munro said. I agreed.
“We’ll put it on every couple of days. No point using dishes just for the sake of filling it.” Once again, I agreed.
Wind the clock forward about five years to this week:
Me - “The dishwasher’s broken. It’s the handle. Something has broken off and the dishwasher isn’t closing.”
“It’s full of dishes,” Mr. Munro said glumly. “And it’s a holiday weekend. We’ll have to do the dishes by hand.”
And so it went. The dishwasher broke on Saturday and we’ve handwashed ever since. It’s now Wednesday and the dishwasher repairman arrived to fix it this afternoon. I handed over our check and thanked him very much. I wanted to hug him but I didn’t want to seem too forward. We use the dishwasher just about every day and there’s only the two of us. It was a pain living without it.
On Christmas day, my sister and I laughed when I said how much I love the dishwasher. This week Mr. Munro and I discussed our smugness and had to laugh. It’s kind of ironic really - how the past always manages to come back and bite you in the bum!
~*~
I received a wonderful five star review for Playing to Win. Anne Boling from ReviewYourBook.com said, “Playing to Win has an edge-of –your- seat plot. I was hooked from the first chapter. This book has twists and turns that keep the reader guessing. The characters are well defined with their own voice. Shelley Munro is a talented author. Fans of romance, do not let this one escape your bookshelf.” The full review is available here.
I am the dishwasher.
There are four of us in our home and I really really really miss having a dishwasher. Our place didn’t come with one. I’d buy one but there’s no good place to put it.
I can’t wait for the kids to get old enough to take over for me!
by Jenyfer Matthews January 30th, 2008 at 12:27 amYou have my sympathy, Jenyfer. This dishwasher has gone on strike!
by Shelley Munro January 30th, 2008 at 1:01 amIt’s amazing how we get hook on our electric/mechanic gadgets and then can’t live without them.
Congrats on the great review!
by Tempest Knight January 30th, 2008 at 7:42 amI’d already been through the same thing, and gone back to handwashing when my first child was born. Suddenly the dishes overflowed! My hands were cracking and bleeding. I had no place to install a dishwasher, but there was room over on one wall, so I got one that rolled up to the sink. What a blessing it was!
by Alice Audrey January 30th, 2008 at 9:02 amI would die without my dishwasher! Seriously. Poor you.
by Lillian Feisty January 30th, 2008 at 10:28 amTempest - I had a dream the other night about our house being burgled. I woke up the next morning and said to Mr. Munro, “Someone stole all our gadgets!”
I was really indignant. I can’t do without my gadgets.
Alice - I’m glad you solved your space problem. Dishwasher hands are no fun!
Feisty - let’s just say both hubby and I were very careful about using too many dishes.
by Shelley Munro January 30th, 2008 at 11:12 amOh Shelley can so relate to that, our dishwasher is dead too, but has been for a month! Hubby is MR Fix it, but Mr Fix it, aint fixed it…yet. And we’ve got 4 in the house plus 2 cats and a dog (oh and 6 fish at last count), but hey what are teens for, if not for doing dishes
by Jane January 30th, 2008 at 12:43 pmJane Beckenham
I love my dishwasher! Did dishes by hand while raising my family. With just the two of us now I use the dishwasher every day.
by Estella January 30th, 2008 at 2:30 pmJane - it’s lucky you have teens to do the dishes, although I remember my mother having trouble to motivate us in the dishes department. You need to give Mr. Fix it a bit of a push
Estella - yes, there’s just the two of us. It’s surprising how many dirty dishes we can make!
by Shelley Munro January 30th, 2008 at 3:05 pmMy life with dishwashers.
After many years without one, we moved into our current home in 1978 and the children looked upon the dishwasher already fitted as manna from heaven and it did good service until 1988, when a hose failed and cooked the electrics and flooded the kitchen.
Prompted by this disaster, we investigated updating our kitchen (it was fifteen years old when we moved in) and finshed up renovating the entire house, taking down walls, adding bay windows, verandahs etc.
Now the children are gone, the need to conserve water has arrived, and hand washing uses considerably less, the dishwasher is used twice a week maximum, unless we have guests.
So it’s back to when we were first married. We take turns at cooking and whoever cooks cleans up after themselves (there’s a rough justice in that as our cooking techniques are entirely different)
Congratulations on a great review. It puts the occasional rejection in perspective.
by Amy Gallow January 30th, 2008 at 3:12 pmLOL I am the dishwasher. I’ve lived in places that had them, but never used them. Maybe that will change at some point down the road, but for now, I’m happy to do them by hand…there are only the two of us. *g*
by N.J. Walters January 30th, 2008 at 5:41 pmOh, and congrats on your 5 star review!!!!
by N.J. Walters January 30th, 2008 at 5:42 pmUnfortunately, my husband and I are the dishwashers. We would LOVE to have a real one! Someday. I’ve tried teaching our dog but she just licks them…
by julia January 30th, 2008 at 7:22 pmAmy - thankfully we don’t have water restrictions here, although it’s mighty dry for Auckland. Thanks re the review. I was really pleased.
NJ - there’s only two of us, too, but I like my dishwasher
Julia - I imagine our little dog would have about the same standard of dishwashing as yours
by Shelley Munro January 31st, 2008 at 12:33 am