The Wheel: Life Made Easier

I started the past week out on a great note, having a very enjoyable lunch with my LACMA ladies. It made for a welcome timeout from running errands and doing my weekly chores. As always, my time off disappeared quickly and the work week arrived once more. On Thursday evening I attended a lecture at the Villa on Roman nude male statuary. This was a timely talk, given that I have recently started collecting research materials to plan a new adult gallery course on nudity in ancient art. I very much enjoyed the lecture, but in order to see it I was stuck at work until 7:30 p.m. That late start time gave me three extra hours at the office, since L.A. traffic (plus the rain) doesn't make it easy to run home and come back in that amount of time. I was glad I stayed, but that was a long day.

Of a much more boring nature but on the vital topic of making my life easier, I finally invested in an "Easy Wheels Jumbo Elite Shopping Cart" from Bed, Bath, and Beyond. Those of you who have a washer and dryer in your home, thank your ever-loving lucky stars, because that is a luxury I have been without for a decade now and would consider committing acts of violence to achieve. Living in university family housing, there is massive competition for washers all the time. So, when I schlep a basketful to the laundry room, I carry as much as I can (hopefully at least three washers' worth), plus the detergents. I used to take it for granted that carting laundry around was just the lot a city apartment-dweller had to accept. However, age and crankiness at such bull pucky have convinced me I'm entitled to bend and shape my environment to my supreme will. Thus, since it is unlikely I'll achieve the luxury of not having to haul clothes back and forth from a laundry room like a pack animal anytime soon, I got the "Easy Wheels" cart. What they charge for such a simple contraption is highway robbery--clearly, the merchants know the situation and adjusted the price accordingly to cash in on the discontent of laundry schleppers everywhere.

My Easy Wheels cart in front of the laundry room.

But, being determined that I should no longer suffer the weighty load of a overstuffed basket of laundry, I paid their price. I brought it home, Eric assembled it, and I loaded it up with laundry, ready for my usual Monday morning laundry detail. The cart is awesome. However, after I started a couple of loads this morning the sky decided to open up and rain heavily. Since I have to walk outside to get to the laundry room, the rain made things interesting. But, thanks to my new wheels, I was able to race through the rain a lot more efficiently. It doesn't really corner well--or at all, in fact--but I pop it up on its back wheels and it maneuvers just fine.

I know what you're thinking. "Did she really just write a post about a cart?" Yes. Yes, I did.

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One word: Carpool

This week I paid $3.79 per gallon for gas. I think that about says it all. At this rate, L.A. will soon be seeing those $4 a gallon gas prices all of those news anchors have been warning about. Actually, anything other than regular unleaded is now over $4 at most gas stations around here. One word: carpool. The Getty already has a car pool incentive program in place, but with $4 a gallon gasoline there will be an incentive most people will sure as heck pay attention to. I don’t intend for this to be a introduction into a diatribe on the government, oil companies, and corrupt politics that led to this new stress on my wallet. I just want all of you who are out there where gas prices aren’t quite so bad to appreciate it. Trust me--it could be worse!

So, taking into consideration the cost of gas, I decided to get around on my own two feet on my day off. Now that daylight savings time has returned I’ve been taking advantage of the extra daylight hours to walk around my neighborhood. We live close to a community park, so there are plenty of good sidewalks to take advantage of (not always the case in L.A.). I find it very relaxing to plug into my iPod and hit the pavement. Now that the weather is warming up we are having some beautiful afternoons around here. I even managed to put in a good walk Monday afternoon even though I’m currently suffering from a cold and a sore throat courtesy of Eric (a weak, germ-infested vessel). Copious amounts of honey vanilla chamomile tea and a few restful hours curled up with a book by one of my favorite authors seem to be helping. I did everything short of hosing Eric down with Lysol to avoid getting this stupid cold, but it was hopeless.