socks, road construction, coconut oil, laundry contamination, and long braids

Today I sort of learned to darn a sock, in that it didn't look that complicated, I didn't do any research at all, and that sock is going to die soon anyway. I just wanted to try it because when my in-laws downsized last month, I got a sock darner.

Now I can say I learned that, based on a fifteen second survey of the internet, other people have old sock darners, too, and ones in similar condition to mine go for about $10. I don't actually care how much it's worth. It's worth another month or two of this particular sock plus whatever other socks I choose to fiddle with in the future. Yay, socks?

In other news:

• The road construction stopped kicking up dust about two weeks ago, so I've been feeling like a human off and on, which is an improvement.
• The coconut-oil-in-the-hair trick got old fast, but with the contaminant mostly out of my hair, I went back to the way I'd been doing it before.
• I cleaned out one of the washing machines again, and from now on, any contaminated laundry I come across is getting tossed instead of mixed with other laundry in the hopes it will be diluted. The result from the last experiment was a whole load of contaminated laundry. 
• The laundry contaminant is oil-based, and I'm going to have to start tolerating detergents if I want to get it out. Two of my doctors were all on board with vinegar if I couldn't use ammonia anymore, and vinegar doesn't do a whole lot, contaminant-wise.

And, because I had a vague interest in growing my hair longer just to see what it did, I read that if your braid is too long, you have to wrap it around your neck in the bathroom if you want to keep it out of the toilet. I have scissors, so watch me never have that problem.

more laundry contaminant

Yesterday I learned that both my washing machines were contaminated, which is ironic since one is specifically for decontaminating things. I took them both apart and cleaned everything with Bon Ami and alcohol, and now their insides don't give me heart palpitations. Hopefully without gunk in the machines to retain badness, my laundry issues will subside.

The good washer had mud in it that smelled like mountain biker sweat. There are some serious drawbacks to using detergents that don't smell like fake flowers.