We established a new record for laundry today — 5 loads, all line-dried at the back of our apartment.* The previous record was 3 loads but dire need caused us to up our game on this occasion. Five loads is way too many, by the way; I don’t think we’ve ever done that many with a dryer at our disposal. But it was a perfect clothes-drying day here in Sikia — warm air, low humidity, light breeze, strong sun.

Those of you who know the apartment will marvel that we found so much stuff to wash. The truth is we’ve done a load on each of the three previous days as well. All the clothes I keep here could be washed in 2 loads, so you’ll have to look elsewhere for an explanation as to the other 6 loads.

We’ll consider the matter this evening as we celebrate our feat with a bottle of wine, of course.**

* Alright, alright, the last load isn’t quite dry as I write this but it will be, by God, it will be.

** The same way we would have consoled ourselves if we’d gone down in ignominious defeat.