Saturdays are always interesting. It’s a grab-bag kind of day. Monday through Friday is predictable; there’s a schedule at school and with evening activities. Sunday is routine with church in the morning and soccer in the evening with relaxation in the afternoon. But Saturday…. this mysterious day is the one day I can always count on to bring unexpected adventures into my life. Sure, there are the routines like running, grocery shopping, cleaning the house, doing laundry, and attempting to complete lesson plans for the upcoming week, but there’s still room for other adventures.
Yesterday was no exception. I returned from my friend Katrina Custer’s house, when Emily announced that the washing machine was not working. There was a load of laundry in there, but it had stopped with about 32 minutes left (the “short” version of a wash cycle is 60-70 minutes long). I pulled out the manual and discovered that “C2” meant that our beloved washing machine was having difficulty draining. The advice from the manual: Check the hose for kinks or cracks; check some other hose for blockages; in other words, figure out the problem yourself.
So Emily pulled out the washer, tore off the duct tape adhering the hose to the pipe in the wall, and poked around while I handed her flash lights, buckets, and pliars. Though we didn’t find any blockage, the machine finished the cycle when she reattached the hose into the wall. We’ll see what happens next time we do a load of laundry.
Just after reattaching the hose, our ride showed up – we were going out for the evening! Marit and I had looked up the schedule of performances at the Freiburg Conservatory of Music, and we decided that a student recital would be a refreshing reminder of our time at Wheaton when we attended recitals 2-3 times each week.
Four of us went: Marit, Natalie (Marit’s roommate who also plays violin), Emily, and me. For about an hour and a half, we were in musical bliss; what could be better than a senior cello recital?
Bach, Schumann, Crumb, and Brahms – it was an excellent recital, and left us feeling contented and at peace.
Then we went home and Emily chopped up our Christmas tree. Actually, she sawed off the branches so we can burn it later. All in a Saturday!
