Friday, February 6, 1998 - North Shore News — 7 5 Solace in spin dry cycle = 00" am MOST bury people I know need a quiet place where they can go to be alone with their thoughts and feelings. tl have a stressful day or EP need to work something out for myself [rake my dogs down to the river to play. I find peace and inspira- tion in the sound of the rush- ing water, and [ always return home a calmer person than 1 lett. Bur as dark winter days and miserable weather fore us to spend more time inside, I tind thar I need a quiet place at home too. Since I don’t live ina par- ticularly big house and my noisy children think all our rooms are communal, fam toreed to escape to an unlike- ly spot, My special place is my laundry room. My laundry room works as a sanctuary for me because T can generally count on being alone there. And the truth is, [ rake great comfort in the simple routines of doing laundry. L revel in the challenge of transforming a smelly mound of dirty rags into neatly piled stacks of clean, bright clothes. [ love the smell of bleach, the feel of warm sheets and towels fresh out of the dryer. [am complete as a woman in my laundry rom. Iam mistress of my destiny; captain of my ship and the rest of the world be damned! OK, so Pm getting a ditele carried away here. While my Jaundry room will do in a pinch, it isn’t pertect. There are times when my eace of mind there is seri- ously threatened, even by the very laundry that most times soothes my soul. Like the time in “92 when I didn’t see a single pair of underwear in the boys? dirty clothes hamper for more than a month, Just thinking about where and how those under- wear might be was most dis- tressing. After some serious scold- ing of the male contingent of the family, asad pair finally showed up, but it was too late to save them. They were barely reeog- nizable and had ro be burned in the fireplace. T now beep a pair of long handled tongs in my special place to handle the stress associated with laundering male dainties. And the balled up socks that get peeled off clammy feet and chucked helter skel- ter into my special place also threaten my calm. Most of them are so stiff with sweat and grime that they could be painted black and used as hockey pucks. If fam to take any refuge at allin my special place, 1 must first throw open the window and then put these pale, putrid, sock pucks (using the tongs, naturally) into a bucket of bleach. Small price to pay for peace of mind, 1 suppose. And there’s more. When clothes arrive in my laundry room without having been worn at all, half inside _ our and wrinkled because they’ve been tossed on the floor by some unthinking daughter trying to decide what to wear, then f get very upset. Bur [know the hum of my dryer will soothe the anger and the wrinkles away. One winter we fostered a stray cat who delivered a lit- ter of kittens in our laundry room, It was a busy place then, Pll tell you. For nwo months the traffic in and out was heavy, as kit- ties grew from blind, mewl- ing rats into adorable thutf balls, rumbling abour the place like miniature drunks at a small town fair. And F actually enjoved having the company in my special place at first. But, as the days and weeks passed, I began to resent the intrusion of people in the family who came in tomy laundry room to see the kitties, and then took liberties with mv orderly stacks of clean clothes, rifling N. Van District should not ke cabbling in drugs Dear Editor: Open letter to North Vancouver District mayor and council. 1 read the recent (Jan. 26) North Vancouver District Council meeting minutes at which motions favoring liberalizing the legal status of heroin and marijuana were debated. The motion dealing with marijuana was passed. I appreciate the responsible position Mayor Don Bell and Councillor Glenys Deering- Robb took in the debate voting against this motion. Shame on the rest of you! First, regarding the debate itself, I am amazed district council even considered such a matter. Clearly this area is under the responsi- bility and jurisdiction of the federal govern- ment. Why waste valuable time, and taxpayers money on something our MPs and Parliament in Ottawa are elected and empowered to deal with? The district has no role to play here. We didn’t vote you into office to deal with drug use and criminal matters. Is this why you are so busy now and voted yourselves a 35% pay . increase? Tam sure you would not appreciate it if the North Shore Health Board, for example, began to deal with matters under your jurisdiction such as recreation, parks and zoning for hous- ing. There are already enough jurisdictional disputes. By the way, I noticed you ran out of time that night to deal with three other items “STRAWBERRY - RHUBARE PIES x Buy Westlynn Bakery [ 1199 LYNN VALLEY RD., Ye VALLEY CENTRE regular price $4.95 ea. on the agenda that were your business! Second, the debate over whether marijuana should be deeriminalized trivializes the effects of this so-called “soit” drug. Let there be no misconceptions, marijuana is a drug. The actions of its primary active ingredient, delta 9- THC, are well known and not iasignificant. As a professional, I have worked with psy- chiatric patients whose trearment and recovery have been adversely affected by cannabis. 1 have taught high school students about the effects (and yes — dangers) of this and other street drugs, and have advised and sat on the boards of organizations devoted to dealing with the social consequences of drug misuse and abuse. With one uneducated, irresponsible and foolish decision you have undermined the work of many others like me. We are all being asked to pay for the conse- quences of drug abuse in our society. By favor- ing the side that seeks to make marijuana and heroin use more acceptable, don’t you realize you also condemn us all to pay for the conse- quences of their abuse? If you think the current problems will go away by making these drugs more available, perhaps you should read again the story of Pandora’s box! Derek Andrews North Vancouver derekand@unixg. ubc.ca 1 get 1 free 985-1622 leet dl i—— iJ) aw] ——F [——! td —— _—— _—=—) (_— = 1 _——_ | —— 7 [Je] booted —— i_——} jel —- oo ———s aa bento aed i——!) i] — —— co ——s —— [——] _———] om teed —— [——} ie! meemeadl —s eo : anand —, [oman [ iis —e | rennaned EF hater —— J —— evartoersalt —— —we J) == —— oo —— = Es teed? eer —— or _ eed = co herbage —— i———} — _—— —— dd clumsily through them to pull out a single ‘Tshirt. Friends of kids came in and out, cyeballing my no nonsense underpants drying on the clothes rack with smirks on their faces. Parents of other kids visit- ed my laundry room and made jokes at my expense about my labeled shelves and color-coded sock piles. L know they weren't really interested in the kitties, they just wanted to infiltrate r special place, to set me off course, which of course, they did. My husband even came into the laundry room one night to see how the feline family was getting along. Upon spotting the pair of ratty old sweatpants F had ferreted out of his laundry to throw in the trash, he broke down, clutching then: to his chest and erving: “Yes, my darlings, Daddy is here and he’s going to save you.” The solitude of my special place was utterly destroved until the day those kitties lett for their new homes. Most days when the weather is lousy, chough, my laundry room is a quiet haven for me. J know thar when my lite gets too hectic 1 can go to my speeial place to be alone with my thoughts, and there will always be laundry there to comfort me. 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