Aren't bubbles wonderful? They come in so many shapes and sizes. They can be clear or colored; they can even be iridescent. They are often fleeting and beautiful but can also be long lasting depending on where they appear.There are many kinds of bubbles in the world. You can have bubbles in a bath or blow bubbles from a small wand. You'll find them in champagne and in the surf at the beach. Some people are even said to live in a bubble. Sometimes they fly away on the wind and sometimes the sunshine will make them change colors. Bubbles can be relaxing; exciting or just plan fun.
But do you know when bubbles aren't fun? They aren't fun when there are too many of them...when they just keep coming and you can't stop them. Maybe you're thinking when would that happen? Well I can tell you. Bubbles are no fun at all when you put dish soap in a dishwasher (because you don't have any dishwasher detergent) and you find out the hard way that you've put too much in the machine....way too much! And this is what happened to me tonight at the animal shelter! How much worse is it to have your blunder so public....and even worse yet, someone else will have to complete the clean up tomorrow.
Picture if you will an industrious volunteer at the animal shelter...folding laundry; walking dogs; cleaning pens....and cleaning dirty dog dishes. It was toward the end of my evening that I decided I had enough dirty dishes to run the machine. That's when I discovered there wasn't any detergent for the machine. Well, I couldn't run it without any cleaning agent so I figured dish liquid would do the trick nicely. And it might have worked out fine if I hadn't put too much in the machine.
About 20 minutes later I noticed some suds on the floor as I was finishing up to go home. As I watched in horror, the machine changed into the next gear and suds began pouring out of every opening that machine had! I froze for about 20 seconds while I stared at the mess gushing out of that machine. Then I ran for the mop. But the mop was no help at all. The mop is already wet so it can't soak up anything. Next I ran back with the mop and switched it for the floor squeegee. (this is a long handled one thankfully) There is a drain in the floor so I thought all I had to do was direct the soap suds to the drain and it would be ok. That plan was shot to hell when I watched the suds building up around the drain....that's when I realized that the water would go down the drain but the damn suds won't...it sits on top.
Now I've got a dishwasher that is throwing up a constant stream of soap suds and a puddle of suds that is growing around the drain. (and I haven't even told you about the suds that was gathering under and behind the machine) NOW what do I do??!! Finally I had a coherent thought...I shut the machine off. (Duh!) Then I just had to look inside and find out just how bad this situation was. When I opened the door even more suds and water came sloshing out! There were bubbles and water everywhere.
At this point I'm hoping that someone would suddenly appear and just make this all go away. Unfortunately the people that did see the problem just sort of acknowledged that I had a real problem there and kept on moving. (I swear I saw Ann's shoulders shaking as she turned away....I just bet she was laughing!) In the back of my head I kept thinking that a bar of soap would kill the bubbles. (how many times as a kid did I lose my wonderful bubbles in the bath when I had to use the bar of soap to finish?) Problem is...we don't use bars of soap at the shelter...everywhere you look its all liquid soap. Then Ann finally stopped laughing long enough to suggest we take a look upstairs in the locker room to see if they have a bar of soap up there. Ann you are a genius! (I didn't even know we HAD a locker room in the place) Turns out we have a women's and a men's locker room and I found a bar of dove soap in the women's locker room. Hurrah, I'm saved!
Nothing in life is ever really as easy as it looks is it? And this was no exception. I took the soap downstairs and started chipping small slivers of soap into a pile with of all things, a box cutter. I kept tossing the slivers into the machine and chipping more. Ann suggested I put the whole bar in the machine and turn it back on but that machine takes way too long to run through it's cycle and I didn't feel like turning this into a sleep over. The slivers of soap did cut down the suds somewhat but I just didn't have enough soap to really fix the situation.
I decided to cut my losses and call it a night. I took the soap back to the locker room...hope the owner doesn't get upset about the misshapen soap. Next I cleaned up as much of the suds as possible; even used the hose to force it down the drain. Then I labeled the dishwasher telling the staff tomorrow that another rinse cycle is needed and that I am sorry I couldn't clean it all up. I just know someone is going to have a rotten time getting the suds all out of that damn thing. I feel guilty now because it's not like me to leave my mess for someone else to clean up. However, I did get the feeling that this is not the first time this has happened. Nobody freaked out about it (besides me) and even though it is a mess...well, at least the floor smells really clean!
