The Hardy Boys and the Case of the Disturbing Detergent

For those of you whom have never had the joy of visiting my home, you may be unaware that I live in an old duplex that was built sometime in the 20s or 30s. It has a lot of the original features -- wood floors, no insulation, crappy windows with holes, bugs, a portal to the Nether Realm. However, unlike most duplexes, the other half of the house is above me, not beside me. The previous tenant was a little small woman who walked around on puffs of air and had a small featherless bird named Sage.

She moved out last September and the duplex was vacant a few glorious months. Then the new tenant(s) showed up. A man and his wife who are around my age. Very nice couple, if not a touch peculiar. (Of course, they've got a fag living beneath them, so I can only imagine what they might think.)

For starters -- they have no furniture. Well, at least very little. I know they have a few tables -- I gave them 2. They have no bed, only an air mattress. No TV, but they have a very old 13" laptop which they use to watch movies and do school work. I'm all for minimalism and all, except that they find other ways to entertain themselves.

Like practicing Capoeira and playing their berimbaus. It gets REAL OLD REAL FAST.

But I digress. The reason I post this is because we have the misfortune of having to share laundry facilities which are located right outside my kitchen. Ya know -- I live alone. I can get away with doing laundry once a week -- or even every two weeks if need be. They cannot. I understand this, and just how quickly clothes can amass in piles. I can also imagine what a pain-o in the butt-o it must be to have to go downstairs to do the laundry. It must be because they always leave it in there for days, and I have to take it out to do laundry. (Of course, they typically do the same to mine as well. But I try to be good about that.)

So why the post? Because I walked in to the laundry room this morning to grab my shirt from the dryer to find they had been doing laundry again. There is a total mystery in the laundry room. It seems like new containers of detergent show up on an almost weekly basis, and they never go away. I use one thing and some dryer sheets. They have now brought in SIX containers of various detergents and one unmarked bottle of something (my thoughts are monkey semen, but I didn't try it to find out). The latest one came this morning ... it's Tide. In Japanese (or Chinese or something I can't read). Here is the collection that has slowly been building in the laundry room.

Additionally -- every time I bring a little trash bag out to collect the dryer lint, they throw it away. Yet -- if I leave the dryer lint on the top of the washer, they just leave it. Sorta dumb, yo.