Stuff You Only Think Of In The Summer

Catchy little title I put in there, huh? Well, I was thinking that we’ve been walking around for the last two years with our stomachs in our throats, waiting on the latest news out of Israel every day. First thing in the morning even before having a cup of coffee, then constantly stopping whatever you are doing to see if something new has happened since the last time you checked in (probably 15 minutes ago).

These are very difficult times Israel is going through and the fact that it just does not seem to end and the hostages are still in Gaza leaves us with plenty of depressing thoughts as we seek other things to take our minds off the situation for a little while, yet hoping that finally the IDF will finish off Hamas for good, retrieve the remaining hostages, and finish the war with no more IDF casualties since we’ve already lost too many.

That being said, I have chosen this subject of “stuff you only think of in the summer’ to basically give everyone a little smile and maybe five minutes of forgetting to check the news and recharging with things that are totally unimportant.

So, while we speak of the unimportant, I do not know about other people, but I have always thought I owned too many towels. The latest inventory of my linen closet, which took place during the winter when I was stuck inside more than I am than during the summer, I call a winter event: Counting the towels.

When I find I have more towels than I can fit in the various linen closets, I tell myself that this is a ridiculous situation to have so many towels with only two people living in this house permanently, even given that I have a multitude of guests utilizing the empty bedrooms at any given time of the year.

Well, the joke is on me! I went to get a towel from the closet today thinking I would go out to take a swim in the pool before going to work, and there was not a towel to be had! Those 46 towels I had counted during the winter were all gone—poof!—and all I could see were naked shelves.

Since I did all the laundry just two days ago, this seemed to be a momentous disappearing act on the part of the towels, and I was determined to get to the bottom of this mystery to see if they had really all been already used or if someone was playing a joke on me.

What I had forgotten was, when it comes to my children, that even they are all grown, when they come home to visit, they automatically revert to old habits. Translated, this meant I just followed a path of dropped towels as I went searching from room to room, picking up the towels and enlarging the pile I began accumulating as I continued my trek around the house.

It was almost like a bedikat chametz only I was searching for towels! By the time I followed this path and made it out to the pool, I realized where all my 46 towels had gone! What I didn’t find in the bedrooms and beyond was found hanging outside on any spot that could hold a wet towel so it would dry! Even on the two bars on each side of the diving board were towels hanging out to dry.

By now I realized that my next investment was going to be a wheelbarrow to collect all these towels, and that I would probably need this valuable new asset on a regular basis during the summer in a continuing effort to keep track of where my 46 towels are unless I decide that I should purchase more towels for the summer months so I don’t run out too quickly and can make rounds collecting all the disappearing towels at my leisure.

The realization also hit me that I better call a family meeting so my children do not pass the baton to my grandchildren and teach them their bad towel habits.

I’m beginning to sound like an old George Carlin routine talking about his stuff. But I think I am one up on him because he never talked about the problems with towels! 

My five minutes is up! May G-d bless our IDF soldiers and keep them safe and may our hostages finally be released and reunited with their families and friends soon! n

Anessa Cohen lives in Cedarhurst and is a Licensed Real Estate Broker (Anessa V Cohen Realty) with over 20 years of experience offering residential, commercial and management real estate services. You are invited to visit her website at WWW.AVCREALTY.COM. She can be reached at 516-569-5007 or Readers are encouraged to send any questions or comments by email to [email protected].