More about laundry

Check it out - cool socks

Somewhere around the time we turned 40 Randy started caring more about clothes. He was never a T-shirt kind of guy because he thought he had a hump on his back (he didn’t), but he wore jeans and polo or short sleeved collared shirts in summer, long sleeved in winter.

He started to buy nicer button downs, sport coats, khakis and nicer slacks. Then he went to work for a footwear company and discovered the wide wonderful world of men’s shoes. He had many pairs of expensive dress shoes, athletic shoes, boots. And he took care of them - he used shoe trees, had a variety of shoe cleaning and polishing products - jars and bottles and brushes.

Once he discovered shoes, the next logical thing was socks. He had a bajillion pairs of socks. Thick socks for some shoes, thin socks for other shoes, and an amazing array of patterns and colors. He bought special boxes for them so he could roll up each pair and line them up in a row. Each row held probably a dozen pairs, 3 rows to a box, and he had 4 full boxes. When I packed up his dresser so I could give it away a friend took all his socks and donated them to a homeless shelter because Goodwill and places like that won’t take used socks.

But back to the laundry part: The laundry basket that holds clean clothes is full. It was Randy’s job to fold all the laundry and put it away, and he often left socks to the end. Somehow, despite all the things in the house that belonged to Randy or remind me of Randy, this laundry basket is what breaks me. I can’t fold that laundry because then his job will be gone and I know I’ll find some of those damned socks.