My dryer is broken. I ordered the motherboard from the manufacturer (whose name rhymes with sneers, leers or tears; take your pick) and am now three weeks into the waiting for that part to slow boat it here.We have pipes in the backyard. My dad installed them 20ish years ago. They stand as a testament to the incredible paradox that he is: brilliant mathematician brain with no visual/spatial aptitude whatsoever. Like many other dire consequences we had faced over the years as a result of that phenomenon, he spaced these poles a good 30ft apart. He calculated that it would yield us 150 ft of clothesline space.What dad forgot was his calculus, because the line is gonna droop with weight! All clotheslines as manufactured by man allows for a certain tension that cannot be ignored. To make a long story short, those lines sunk low whenever clothes were hung from them; we needed poles to hike those buggas up to aim them at the sun. If there was a brisk breeze, those poles swung, fell, and tangled the line and the clothes along with it. I hated doing laundry when I was growing up for that reason!I had forgotten all of that in these past years. From the time we bought the house from my dad, I had a w/d system. At the time the pipes were overcome by all that maile pīlau and california grass and other rubbish bushes and we didn't see them until we brought in a dozer (those pipes are closer to the forest than they are our hale). I would grumble at my husband to put the line up, but in all of these years, it never happened.Yesterday morning, facing another drought-ridden day, knowing that there would be sunshine and good breezes and several piles of laundry, I decided to put up those lines mahdamnself. I went to HomeDespot (without my husband! Spent less than $30! Uīhā). I thought I did a pretty good job! My big girl started to crank the laundry and I made sure all of my kids were outside, enjoying that unfamiliar rite of passage on how to hang laundry properly! My grandmother's hand was upon me, "put the clothespin here, sunshine is free, this is how you order your clothes, turn everything inside out, pay attention so that you don't stretch out your clothes, use enough clothespins! Not like that! Hana hou!"My lines were hanging heavy with three loads of laundry…within a 1/2 hr, my lines were hanging reaaaaalllly heavy. Ohsnap. Toss on the boots, its time to go rummaging through the forest to find branches to hoist up the lines!*sigh*… ʻōhiʻa and lama trees don't just leave 6ft tall skinny branches on the forest floor. If they are that long, they are logs. Stuck under other bio debris. And heavy. Mossy. A real chore to pull out. And not too many. To what degree do I macguyver this situation by dragging fallen branches out from the forest? This is too heavy! Gaaaaayyyaaaa!Ok, plan B. Get back out there with my husband's wrench kit whateverlā and mess with the tension. That was another hour in the hot sun and saying many, many bad words. The jury is out if my efforts were successful in the long term. This morning hubby gets off of work and comes home. I am going to pester him to he-man the tension back.The lesson in this, if any, is never separate your clotheline poles more than 20ft, max. The blessing in this is the reminder of how beautiful sun-dried clothes smell.
Oh my....tita, you MUST submit your writings to the 'Oiwi Journal. I absolutely love your ability to bring us into your world. I, have not have the luxury of have a dryer for about 7 years. I am old school and I LOVE to hang my laudry out on the line, especially if its one of those days....nice breeze, hot-as-hell, where I can do 3 or even 4 loads in one 9 hour span while doing other chores, and checking Maoliworld in between. Yes, and I know what you talking about....I have 2 favorite "tight" lines that I hand towels on, cause can handle. The ones that sag and no moa da good tension, I hang the kids clothes and light stuff. but no matter what, the thing always going sag yeah. SHEEZ, and what is it about the kane????? You can beg, plead, off nights of intimate sex without interruptions and STILL they no can feel our pain. FIX THE DAMN LINE! Nope, we always gotta do um ourselves. Oh well, such is life and yes...our right of passage. Well, it's 9:10 am and the sun if finally over Kalihiwai and although we are suffering form touches of vog from Hawaii Island, I'll manage at least to get the whites out today......until later, Lorilani
My add in would be. Dang the stick to hoist the line up is broken but I gotta make sure that the clothes on the line is dry before my mother got home. So at a ver young age, I did srious ʻepekema action. Stick broken, hang the longer heavy clothes right next to the two t's the light short clothes in the center. Usually worked. I hated those beach towels we liberated from the hotel cause they would touch the ground.
But for me and my clothesline saga so that I can add to yours is that my papa, grandfather nō hoʻi, made our the T's where strung the wire out of wood. After seeing much of the element if the clothes was not properly balanced and was too heavy, that side would start to bow to the ground and any long clothes would then need to be rewashed and hung. My Mākau ʻepekema or better put mākaukau ʻepekema (probably physics?) would have to kick in. Let me humbly say it did not kick in very often. LOL
Keep us entertained with more of our Panaʻewa Pursuits!!!!LOL
Mahalo ho'i for your clothseline mo'olelo. I really, really think that you should haku the clothesline hula next. You my hero Luahiwa, I would be on Big Island Survivah wit' you any day!!!
Aloha,
Noe
Comments
My add in would be. Dang the stick to hoist the line up is broken but I gotta make sure that the clothes on the line is dry before my mother got home. So at a ver young age, I did srious ʻepekema action. Stick broken, hang the longer heavy clothes right next to the two t's the light short clothes in the center. Usually worked. I hated those beach towels we liberated from the hotel cause they would touch the ground.
But for me and my clothesline saga so that I can add to yours is that my papa, grandfather nō hoʻi, made our the T's where strung the wire out of wood. After seeing much of the element if the clothes was not properly balanced and was too heavy, that side would start to bow to the ground and any long clothes would then need to be rewashed and hung. My Mākau ʻepekema or better put mākaukau ʻepekema (probably physics?) would have to kick in. Let me humbly say it did not kick in very often. LOL
Keep us entertained with more of our Panaʻewa Pursuits!!!!LOL
Aloha,
Noe