春天到了:收起你們的烘乾機
Everyone hates me in the springtime.
在春季，人們都不喜歡我。As soon as the weather warms up, the clothesline in my backyard gets hauled into action and I become physically unable to stop talking about it. My Instagram feed becomes littered with bucolic pictures of my dainties fluttering in the sunny breeze and I become prone to embarking upon long-winded screeds to anyone within earshot about how amazing my sheets smell when they’re dried in the fresh air.
隨着天氣逐漸變暖，曬衣繩就開始在我的院子裏面開始使用了，出於本能，我忍不住要說說這件事。我的Instagram（一款照片共享應用）數據，全部都是一些田園風格的圖片：天氣晴朗，微風陣陣，我得漂亮衣服在風中擺動。我開始傾向於關注那些冗長的文章，文章內容主要是在清新的空氣中，我的衣服散發的味道，讓附近的人感到驚訝。In the wintertime, my clothes stagnate in the hamper until it risks overflowing or until my daughter runs out of socks. In spring and summer, however, I’m a compulsive laundry-doer. A sunny day means a laundry day, and laundry days fill me with an embarrassing amount of glee.
在冬天的時候，我的衣服總是裝滿籃子，直到裝不下爲止，或者是積攢到我女兒沒有襪子穿。然而，在春天和夏天的時候，我在洗衣服方面就開始變得有強迫症。晴朗的天氣，就是洗衣服的日子；洗衣服的日子總是讓我感到一種莫名的歡樂。
It’s a sweet ritual, this clothesline thing. I haul the basket of wet laundry to my backyard and balance it on the wobbly stool rescued from a curbside garbage pile years ago. One by one I take out our shirts and dresses, T-shirts and socks, shake out the wrinkles, attach them with clothespins, then pull the line over to pin the next one. Shaking and pinning, smoothing and pulling the line. It’s very soothing in its repetition, and only takes me about 10 minutes longer than just chucking it in the dryer.
曬衣繩成了一種甜美的慣例。我把裝滿溼衣服的籃子拖到院子裏面，然後站在一個搖搖晃晃的凳子上把衣服掛在繩子上，這個凳子是幾年前從附近的一個垃圾堆撿回來的。我把衣服從籃子中一件件拿出來：襯衫、裙子、T恤和襪子，然後把褶皺抖一下，用衣夾夾緊，然後舒展在繩子上，然後開始掛另一件。抖一抖，夾上，展開平鋪在曬衣繩上面。這種重複的動作，讓我感到十分欣慰，這比我將衣服塞進烘乾機中的時間，僅僅多出了10分鐘。
I feel the sun on my face and a mild, pleasant sort of ache in my arms. It’s silent and satisfying. When I’m finished I can stand back and survey my work, see what I’ve done. It’s a ritual that can’t be rushed in a time when everything feels rushed.
我的臉沐浴在陽光下，手臂有一種令人舒適的微痛感。鴉雀無聲，我感到很滿足。當我曬完衣服之後，我可以站在曬衣繩後面，欣賞自己的勞動成果，看看我都做了些什麼工作。這是一種慣例，而且不能一蹴而就，因爲世界上幾乎所有的事情都太匆匆。I’ll admit that the enthusiasm with which I approach this task is excessive, perhaps, but it’s also underpinned by some pretty solid data indicating how environmentally effective a simple shift like this can be. With 85% of households in the US owning tumble dryers (60% in the UK), the energy sucking power of these machines is incredible.
我承認，或許我對這一工作有點過於熱忱了，但是我又被一項十分可靠的數據支持着，數據顯示這一簡單的改變，起到了很好的環保效果。美國85%的家庭有滾筒式乾衣機（英國佔60%），這些乾衣機耗費的能量讓人難以置信。
