Well, today is the last day for people at the B&B until 2008. For the last two years, we have been closing after Thanksgiving. It used to be too hard to keep the steps and driveway shoveled when it snowed or when there was ice. We used to close after New Year's and reopen in March but now do it earlier. I'm just glad it's over for awhile....4 people for the Holiday, visiting family in Tivoli. 4 people, 3 beds (they used the pull out couch), sheets, towels, tablecloths and napkins - I'm on my third load of wash right now. I hang out the sheets. It is something I enjoy doing, and it really makes a difference. Some people think its "low class" to have clothes hanging in their yard. It used to be everyone hung out their clothes. When I was first married, I lived in a four-family apartment building. I did wash almost everyday but Monday's was especially a wash day, and it was a race to hear who's line was being pushed out first. You could tell who had a baby, when a line was filled with diapers, or who had the flu, when you saw sheets, blankets, etc hanging out on a cold wintry day. Now, it is only myself and Mrs. Lemon that hang out clothes on Clay Hill Road. Mr. Lemon died a few years ago, and after the funeral when I saw her wash blowing in the wind, I felt relieved, like she was going to be all right. There's an art to hanging out clothes, you don't do it haphazardly. Washcloths all line up together, and socks like to be hung with their match. Sheets and pillow cases stick together, just as shirts and pants do. White clothes one line, dark clothes the next. For years I didn't have a dryer, so in the winter, when it started getting dark, I would bring in the clothes, some still stiff and frozen. The pants and shirts looked like people, legs sticking out, arms in strange positions. I would put them on the heater to dry, and soon the house was filled with (what I still think) is the wonderful smell of clean laundry. In Ireland, everyone hangs out clothes....I even saw clothes hanging on hedges, a sight that made me smile. One time in Ireland, my friend Chrissy and I stopped at a B&B. The daughters in the house asked if they could do our laundry, and we were delighted to say yes. We went out to a pub, laughing thinking about the girls wanting to see what kind of clothes we had from America, and after a few pints went back to our B&B. But, we couldn't find it, we had neglected to take one of their business cards, and every other house in Ireland has a B&B sign in front of it. We drove from street to street, starting to worry that this could be serious, when I said, "Hey Chrissy, aren't they your white pants? And there's my IBM shirt". Sure enough, there in the yard, drying in the Irish breeze were our clothes and our B&B. Our laundry saved us that day. Well, anyway, today I am rejoicing that there won't be B&B laundry for a while, no making sure we have all 3 types of bread and English muffins available, that the milk and yogurt have "good" dates, etc. School is out...let the summer vacation begin.