Monday, January 28, 2008

What's That Smell?

I got this fabulous new coat for Christmas - it's a light green bluish color with black & white accents & it's a poofy coat. I haven't had a poofy coat since my Northland days (guess I got tired of feeling puffy!). I had decided before Christmas that I really needed a sporty coat to wear day to day that had some down in it; I was tired of shivering through the winter months. So I found this great coat the day after Thanksgiving & my parents got it for me for Christmas. I loved it. Until I realized how DIRTY it got! So easily! The light color combined with my somewhat grimy work conditions (5 fleet vehicles that are covered with salt/snow grime & driven by men). When I make deliveries I get all kinds of stuff on me - the dirty salt stuff on the outside of the vehicles & the spilled coffee or whatever that grimes up the inside of the vehicles. So this weekend I decided I had to wash the poor thing. The instructions were fairly simple. Machine was cold, tumble dry low with 3 clean tennis balls or a clean sneaker. Interesting. I actually had 3 brand new tennis balls so I dug them out of the darkest corner of my closet & dumped them in the dryer with my coat. The coat actually got fairly clean (after 2 wash cycles & much pre-treating) & it took hardly any time at all to get it dry. But it stinks! Anybody ever get a big waft of new tennis ball smell? It's not at all like fabric softener! So now my coat smells like tennis balls, fabric softener, & febreeze. Yum.

6 comments:

Erin said...

Guess I don't really know what tennis balls smell like.

Unknown said...

very funny story - thanks for the heads-up on the tennis ball effect.

Troy & Sherry said...

that is funny-
so are you buying the house? i didn't see that part of your life updated....
:)

Mary Ann said...

Erin, tennis balls smell like funky new rubber. I can't describe it exactly & I think the reason they recommend using them in the drying process is to keep the down in the coat from clumping. The good news is that the smell is starting to air out - thank God!

Adele said...

That's funny - I never would have expected that, but it certainly makes sense. When the other alternative is a clean sneaker (and who has one of those anyway?) I guess there aren't many options!

Karis said...

That is very funny! I