Something wonderful this way comes ...

*Sigh* ....  After Bill's death, I was assailed with many helping hands.  It almost felt like a full-time job to keep these available hands busy!  Mind you, in those days just getting up in the morning was a huge undertaking!  *Sigh ... don't miss those days*  Getting back to my story - I did not have to think of how I was going to get it done but more so who will I assign this to?  There was no lack of offers to help and in most cases, things got done rather quickly after I asked; to coin my brother-in-law's favourite saying, "It's just a phone call away!" 

Seven and a half months later, things have changed where although there are people still around to help, it is often on someone else's schedule - and rightfully so.  Keeping to my agenda to not become "The Needy Widow", I have managed to "make do" until someone is available - like taking the bus to get to work last week, buying extra clothes racks because the dryer wasn't working and putting an "out of order" sign on the downstairs bathroom! 

But something strange and wonderful happened last night.  I was in the garage (yup - contemplating life!) when I thought to myself ... "The dryer is heating, it is turning but it seems like the air is not circulating."  I opened the back door leading to the outside vent, inched over the door sill, shuffled up to the side of the house and slowly peeked into the little square box with the flaps.  I slowly lifted the first flap and the corners of my mouth slowly curled upwards in a smile.  There it was!  One big fat ball of lint!!!! Ah ha - gotcha!  I reached in and wrestled it out of its hiding place.  I lifted the second flap and caught the next fluff ball by its tail!  By the time I was done, I had a lint ball the size of a grapefruit.  Not to be outdone, I rolled up my sleeve and reached in as far as I could to make sure that there wasn't any more hiding in there. 

Now I know that for many of you, this is probably not the biggest adventure story ever written but for me, it was monumental in that given a moment of my stepping out of despair, I was able to think it through logically and then take it one step further and dare attempting to fix it.  Who knows, maybe next time I will take the screwdriver out on my next adventure and actually remove the cover to gain better access to the pipe!

I did manage to do an extra load of socks last night and dry them in the dryer.  I was quite pleased with myself and was reminded of what Bill often said, "I always knew I married you for more than just your good looks!"  As I stood in the cool winter night, holding up a handful of lint like it was trophy, I could almost see him peeking down, thinking just that.