Where's a free dishwasher when you need one?

Want to hear a very weird but absolutely true story?

My dishwasher has been slowly dying for months (that's not, by the way, the weird part.  unpleasant, but not weird).  The dishwasher wasn't that old but the racks (top and bottom) had already rusted to ruin a couple of years ago.  We'd bought replacement racks, foolishly thinking that was a wise decision, and those, too, had rusted almost to ruin, yet again.  And the ruin didn't limit itself to just the racks, either--nope, other rust spots have been showing up on the washer itself.  About a week ago it flaked off the paint to show a nice quarter-sized spot of rusted through area and started leaking through said spot on the door. I caulked up that spot as a (literal) stopgap measure and we started looking at the options and prices of new dishwashers.

We'd hoped to have a little time left to get our ducks in order, but last Monday, it was pretty undeniable, our dishwasher was not only rusting apart, but also was now not even doing even a minimally acceptable job of cleaning--which, when you think about it, was the only job we were even asking the poor, rusting, limping appliance to do.  It was time to call it what it was: a kind of expensive and not particularly good looking drying rack for our newly remembered handwashing ways.

Handwashing isn't all bad. It gave me a chance to remember my youth.  And my grandmother who never owned a dishwasher.  And it was an interesting thought exercise but also a little sad to try and remember whether it was my grandmother or my home ec teacher who insisted that silverware and glasses should be washed before dishes and then pots (I never did figure out who it was, which, honestly, bothers me a lot because it's not like the two had equal impact on my life so how come I can't remember?).

But handwashing isn't fun.

But, here's the really weirdly cool part.  As I was leaving the office for lunch the next day, I saw it, this amazing miracle of a thing: in the foyer of the office building was a dishwasher just sitting there hanging out on a large sheet of cardboard with a sign that read:

FREE working dishwasher

As crazy as it sounds, I swear this really happened!

One of the downstairs offices had been renovating, which I knew because there were boxes in the lobby for a week, followed by cabinets parts sitting in the hallway, followed by more parts and a used office-like pieces.  But a dishwasher?  Our office doesn't have one and I honestly can't remember that I've ever worked in a place that did.  What are the odds, and less than 24 hours after we realized we couldn't use ours anymore?

So yeah, I put a nice addition to the note thanking them and telling them we'd pick it up that afternoon--didn't want to risk the awesome thing disappearing, especially not to a "guess no one wants it" dumpster.  It actually took a day while we arranged to borrow my brother- and sister-in-law's van (thanks, J and J!) since it wouldn't fit in a car (we tried) and last night, a mere 3 days after we started handwashing, I bought a new $12 drain hose and installed this thing (installation manuals and YouTube are wonderful things), and--get this!--ran a load of dishes.  Three days.

It's not new, probably about 5 years old, judging from the model number, but it works beautifully, and has neither rust nor leaks.  It's also the right size for the space and even the same white finish to match our fridge and oven.  Honestly, it's weirdly perfect.

Looks good, right?

 I just keep shaking my head.  I mean, what are the odds?  Just what we needed, perfect, free, and right there the very next day.  I've never seen a free working dishwasher hanging out in a hallway before, not in that office and not any other hallway that I can remember.  I know I have stage IV cancer and everything, but I still feel like I must be the luckiest person EVER.  What a crazy blessing. 

Do I believe in miracles?  Theoretically I'd say yes, but happening to me, if I'm honest, no, I didn't really believe miracles on that scale can happen in my own life.  It's like they're nice for other people, but this is me we're talking about here.  I generally feel more like a "make it happen" kind of gal than the "charmed life" type.*

But maybe I need to rethink that a little bit.

Does a free dishwasher mean anything at all about doing better than average with metastatic cancer?  Well, no, not really.

I know that.

But, on the other hand, which of us really knows what treatments will work for how long and what new therapies might come down the pike?  Who knows what the future holds?

I know my cancer odds aren't excellent.  My odds are actually pretty damn crappy.  But who knows? I could be one of the lucky ones who pull this thing out for a long while.  I mean, stranger things have happened.  Like this dishwasher, for example.



*Just to clarify, since my husband read this differently than I intended, so he's probably not alone, I don't mean my life isn't great, because it is and full of blessings--I'm just trying to say that we have to work for things, usually anyway, rather than just putting out our hands and watching them fill with diamonds.
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(Also, I went for my monthly oncology appointment today, white blood cells are low but acceptable so no need to take extra time off of Xeloda, plus my liver numbers are back to normal again which is great--guess that's kind of par for the course this week!)