The teenager worked super hard cleaning, painting and rearranging things (like the refrigerator) while I moved furniture and tried to get the large objects off the floor— the cat toys, the random roller blades, the dog paraphernalia.

Lowe’s will delivery my Samsung washer and dryer between 8 am and noon. Which is, to me and my now second shift soul, the crack of dawn. It’s so early my parakeet is still sleeping.

This project means a lot to me on a lot of fronts— doing something for myself that is part of a long term vision, finally getting a dryer after about three years, spending money that I would usually save.