I know. The whole washing machine thing makes me laugh as well. It’s like owning a snow shovel. Growing up I envied the folks who didn’t have to shovel snow, but I didn’t feel superior to the people who didn’t need one.
Same with the washing machine. We have one, but it’s the guy who stuffs his clothing in a sack, where it’s picked up on Monday and comes back Wednesday clean, dried and perfectly pressed that I’m going to envy. He’s the one who has it made, not us folks who do our own laundry.
I live in the boonies now and it’s a LOT more work maintaining this place than it was maintaining an apartment in New York. I have 3+ acres that need mowing bi-weekly ... back in the City, the landlord paid for a company to come and maintain the lawn. Here I have to haul my garbage to the dump. Before, I threw it down a chute daily. The landlord provided hot water and steam heat that didn’t cost me a dime. If something went wrong in the apartment, I called the super who immediately fixed it.
There were 72 apartments in my building and over the years those 71 other families became my extended family. Dave and Jeff hung out on the stoop and would share the gossip of the day with me when I came home from work. Here, there aren’t 72 families within a mile of me. I could walk around the corner to all the stores where all the merchants knew me. Here the closest store is nine miles away and town is another nine miles beyond that. There was a sense of community in New York City that I miss here.
Some on this thread write of the joys of watching the rabbits and birds from their homes ... I watched ships and surfers and flocks of seagulls from mine. I couldn’t take a stroll on the boardwalk without running into friends and neighbors and co-workers. If I wanted more solitude, I take the dog for a walk on the beach. I’m getting homesick writing this ...