Like I've been iron'n with ma high heels on.......and it's a sin!

Today I decided I would tackle some much needed ironing.  You see we've moved, lock, stock and barrel...a long long way from Maine.  And when the movers came to pack us, they told us....you can fill the chest of drawers and dressers with clothes if you like.  That would save us the rather hefty cost of "wardrobe" boxes....so pack those dressers and chests of drawers, I did...pack those babies to the gills. I'm sure the movers wished they'd never told me that when they tried to lift those pieces of furniture.

Well when you pack (oh come on let's be brutally honest)...when you cram clothes into drawers so tightly you can barely shut the draw, guess what happens to those clothes.....yes, you in the third row madly waving your hand, that's right....they get unbelievably wrinkled...and moving van trucks are not always  the most pristine places in the world.  So of course being the clean freak that I am, they all had to be washed and yes....ironed-- before I put them in my new closets.  I've had them stacked in my spare bedroom like a clothing store exploded.  Slowly I've been shuffling them, put them in laundry baskets, then to this side of the bed, to that side of the bed...sorted, folded, resorted....gathering the courage to fill the steam iron with water, plug it in and wait for the steam to pour out of those tiny little holes.

Today I worked up the courage to do a basket full (32 pieces to be precise)....and I realized IT IS A SIN that we should have so many clothes......most of which we rarely wear........especially now when we've come to a place where the "dress de jour" is shorts, tank tops and flip flops....It's just a sin!  How does a person acquire so many pieces of clothing and so many shoes (OK OK....those of you who know me well know "you can never have too many shoes").  But seriously you can....especially  spiked heels that you haven't worn in almost 6 years.  I ironed 32 pieces today, and I'm ashamed to say there are more piles! I'll try to gather the courage to do those another day.

That ironing made me think of an old friend of mine from the time I worked for Sun Oil in Dallas.  His name is Ken Horn and he is a great guy with a wonderful family.  He lived through several major heart attacks and bypasses, a heart transplant, a kidney transplant and other hospital stays.  I've just learned that he now has leukemia and isn't doing well.  I am saddened by this news....but he made me smile today....because years ago (in the late 1980's) when he was really really tired at work he used to say (in his East Texas drawl)...."I'm so tired, I feel like I've been iron'n with ma high heels on. "

That's how I felt today.

 
Ken, thanks for making me smile....and making me realize that a few piles of clothes that need to be ironed, a few more boxes that still need to be unpacked, and workers hammering on my roof, are very very small nuisances.

Ken......where ever you are I hope you are resting and hanging in there.