My laundry room, 11:58 p.m. – You spin me right round baby, right round!

All I can hear is the thump-thump-thump of the dryers at my apartment building’s laundry room turning my clothes round and round.

I love my building. It is ancient – for Florida anyway – and has tons of charm. None of the apartments are exactly alike and it is painted in those funky pink and yellow stucco colors. I just don’t get a washer/dryer in my apartment.

This means I have to schlep everything downstairs every so often – usually in the middle of the night – and deal with the cranky washing machines and other people’s lint. One washing machine has – I guess you’d call it a ‘quirk’ although it is more of an annoyance – and always takes exactly nine minutes longer to finish the soak cycle than the other one. I always have to remember to get that particular one going first and then sort my clothes for the other washer – otherwise it screws up the timing on Wash/Dry in unison.

I’m writing from the picnic bench on the downstairs patio. It’s a sad, broken-down picnic bench that saw better years during Bush I; actually, this is a sad little patio. It is more or less a morgue for dead grills. There is probably charcoal in there from the Cambrian.

The less attractive lawn furniture – the ones that can’t get dates – is consigned here from the upper deck patio as well. Being mostly plastic, it just blows around during storms. There isn’t really any shade, unless you count the ugly hedge dividing my building’s back yard from the old-people subdivision next door.

Miraculously, I’m able to get a fairly decent 41% signal on my wireless network down here – even though I’m three apartments over.

The noises of the night are held in abeyance – or else drowned out by the clunk clunk clunk of the dryer. I just heard someone’s air conditioner kick on briefly – but that’s pretty much it. No frogs tonight – thank you Shiva!

The morning dew is starting to fall – I can feel my T-shirt getting heavy with condensation; the wood of the picnic table here is also a little cold and slightly damp.

The smell of the air is damp and kind of earthy – and every now and again I get a whiff of the metallic tang coming out of the laundry room. There is absolutely no breeze. Everything is completely still – as if frozen in smoked black glass as I look out across the back lawn. I’m sure there are tons of bugs moving around – but as long as they stay off me – we’re cool.

I can see stars. Not a lot, but they are definitely out tonight. Thinking about the great big world out there only makes me feel small. I’ll switch gears now.

Only 30 minutes left to go on my laundry. My landlady claims that she doesn’t make any money off of the laundry room – but I fail to see how that’s a possibility when we pay $1.25 to wash and a quarter for every twelve minutes on the dryer. And the dryers are old and cranky – so if you have a decent-sized load – you need to shell out at least $1.

One of the things I love about my building is that it has been heavily landscaped in a sort of “wild Florida” style. A lot of the trees are mature and I love the fact that I can see palm fronds waving outside my window. The planting along the front walk is also overgrown and lush – it really does a lot to hide the fact that it’s really just a parking lot with some old funky apartments.

Ugh. I’m getting a chill. I’m also getting a little bit wet sitting out here – I can definitely feel the damp in my pants.

Time to go. Peace out, later bye!