Saturday, November 8, 2008

Lamentations on a Sock.

Some months ago, I picked up the laundry and when I put it away, I was left with one sock missing its partner. Said sock went onto the top of the armoire. Who knew. Maybe the missing sock was under the bed and would show up in due course. Perhaps it was still in the clothes hamper and missed the trip to the laundry. Perhaps it would magically appear the next time laundry was laundered.

Now, as autumn ebbs toward winter, the lonely sock remains...lonely. Occasionally, I am reminded of the lonely sock's solitary existence when one of the cats knocks it off the top of the armoire. And I am forced to pick it up and put it back up there again.

I suppose I should give up on the return of my sock's fraternal twin, but I liked this pair of socks and I'll feel bad if I forsake him. He's already lost a brother. Hasn't he been through enough already.

LuLu just jauntily launched him from his lofty aerie again. I'll be headed into the bedroom shortly to put him back in his place of temporary repose. It's the least I can do for him.

Besides, I just know that two days after I get around to disposing of this loyal sock who never did anything to deserve disposal, I'll encounter a house-elf in need of emancipation...and then where will I be.

13 comments:

Jim Wright said...

that's why I buy all the same kind of socks. They're all brothers, all of them, one giant clone army. One goes rogue, who care?

MWT said...

Occasionally I find rogue socks from other people in my laundry. I try to remember to put them back out in the laundromat to give them a good chance to get home.

And... this looks remarkably like nanowrimo procrastination. Go write something! *cracks whip*

Jeff Hentosz said...

God-a-Mighty, meet Lulu halfway, will ya? You're supposed to fill the stray sock with loose-leaf catnip, tie the end in a knot and let it go, daddy-o.

I'd love to see video of Teufel with a sinus-full of herb. I bet he can operate small appliances.

Nathan said...

These cats require no drugs.

Random Michelle K said...

I second Jim. Although I did discover that my black socks had two different dye lots. So I keep them in two separate piles according to greenish black and brownish black.

What?

Nathan said...

Matching socks are the hobgoblin of little minds.

Anonymous said...

I had a friend who had what she thought were two different batches of black socks for her husband, one with gold stitching across the toe, and one with red. Until one day she turned one inside out and noticed, gold, red, gold, red. Hand, forehead.

We all have our moments.

We have three guys in my household who all wear XL socks - I buy them each uniform large batches in different kinds. One is all white, one has grey heels/toes, one all grey. Then we have clone armies too, and it's *sortable*. Although eldest does his own laundry, badly.

Girls can't do that. What if someone noticed, or if they didn't match our different outfits?

neurondoc said...

Jeri says: "Girls can't do that. What if someone noticed, or if they didn't match our different outfits?"

But I have about 10 pairs of the same black socks, bought en masse. If they are different dye lots, I haven't noticed. Too lazy to worry about it.

I, too, had a favorite pair of socks where one of the pair went AWOL. I finally (after about 4 years) got rid of it during the summer in a purge of old clothes from my closet. Don'cha know that the long-lost sister showed up about a week later. I gnashed my teeth and threw it in the garbage. That's learn it -- it will molder in a landfill for the next 40 years...

Natalie

neurondoc said...

Oh -- Michelle, I like your avatar.

kimby said...

I use Jim's idea for gloves and mittens. I was tired of a child telling me they had lost one. This way, all they have to do is open the drawer and grab one. Socks, I used to me a little nuts over...now when the laundry is done they all go in a laundry bin and the wearer is responsible for finding the pairs....The boys all have white socks, Bug and i have a variety..but now it is less of a headache for me.

Tom said...

Not only do I subscribe to Jim's method, I also "stage" the socks so they all get the same wear. The freshly washed ones go in the back of the drawer, to be brought up once the others have been worn.

But I have 2 batches of socks, one batch white, and one black. Cause sometimes you just have to wear white socks, just not at work. :)

MWT said...

At one point when I was a teen, I had two pairs of brown socks. For some reason I only ever saw three of them at a time, and assumed the fourth had been lost - but because there were three, I could always make a pair. I wore them all equally to do the equal-weardown thing. Somehow they kept cycling through the laundry in such a way that there were always three clean ones in the drawer, and it was years before I finally saw all four of them together. That was quite a shock. ;)

Tania said...

I rarely wear socks, so it's a non-issue for me.

The socks I do have are either goofily festive, or super warm.

Nathan, listen to Jeff, he knows what he's talking about.