30 May 2010

Leprous garments

(This is not the way I expected I would return to blogging post-baby, but... the best is the enemy of the good [or even the middling!], so better I should just start already when I've something, however trivial, to say!)

I'm doing baby-laundry. Life has been busy (when is it not?) and there are some baby clothes that have been hanging out in the sink in the downstairs bathroom, a location in which they land when they need some extra TLC -- to have stains rinsed out, to be set to soak, etc. I didn't set these ones aside, nor did I know how long they've been there, but I was vaguely aware of their existence & the general desire to get them washed when wash got done. So while the washer was filling with sudsy water, I went to investigate in preparation for throwing them in with the rest of the baby clothes that had been accumulating in the laundry sack. OK, here's her white onesie with her name on it... here's the onesie Grandma gave her from a Louisville museum exhibit, that's dark blue, maybe I'll save that for a later load that's not light-colored clothes...
oh
my
...
WHAT is that?!?!?!?!

Fuzzy. Brightly colored magenta and nasty steel-grey spots. Growing out of the fabric.
Ay-yai-yai!

First thought: Ewwwwwww!
Second thought: Hey, this is like in Leviticus when they talk about "leprosy" in cloth or a garment!

And when the plague of leprosy is in a garment, whether it be a woolen garment, or a linen garment; or in the warp, or in the woof, whether they be of linen, or of wool; or in a skin, or in any thing made of skin. If the plague be greenish or reddish in the garment, or in the skin, or in the warp, or in the woof, or in any thing of skin, it is the plague of leprosy, and shall be shown unto the priest. (Leviticus 13:47-49)

No priest here. I reported on it to the spouse, who said "Throw it out!" After a brief consideration of recovery efforts (possible on the one dark-colored denim item that seemed to have just a little; not very promising on the light pink item covered in splotches, even once the fuzziness had been destroyed), and on the veritable heaps of existing baby-clothing hand-me-downs that could substitute for the leprous garment, I did so.