The Changelog

Well. I discovered this evening that my underwear has been rotated for me for the last three years. My wife and I were innocently discussing her tendency to make organized piles of things. Then this conversation happened:

Terah: And I also rotate your underwear.

Me: (laughing) Really?

Terah: Of course.

Me: (laughing uncontrollably for awhile...) So does it get rotated every 6,000 miles like tires or what?

Terah: (pretending not to get the joke) No!

Me: Why do you rotate it?

Terah: So it all gets worn evenly. But you mess up the plan because you don't always take underwear from the front left pile first! Besides, you wouldn't want any underwear to be left out.

Me: (just understand that I'm laughing pretty much this entire time...) How long have you been doing this?

Terah: Since I started doing our laundry. (That would be since we moved to Kansas 3 years ago; I did our laundry before that.)

Me: So do you rotate your own underwear?

Terah: Oh, of course, I've been rotating mine for years.

Me: How many years?

Terah: Hmm, about 11.

Me: So do you have a specific rotation plan?

Terah: Yes! Each week, the 2nd-row right pile moves to the 1st-row left pile, the first row middle pile moves right, and the 1st-row right pile moves up. The left two piles on the 2nd row never rotate.

(Initially, I wrote: "Each week, the 2nd row-left pile moves down to the front-row left, and everything else moves around, except the third row, which doesn't fit as well and never goes in the rotation." But Terah reviewed this before I posted it, and said: "There is no third row. You don't even know how many rows of underwear you have!!" Terah says that what I've written now still isn't quite right, but it's close. I guess I may never understand all the theory behind proper underwear rotation.)

Me: So is there a set number of pairs in each pile?

Terah: Yes. Three. But sometimes you mess that up because you throw away worn out underwear.

Me: So what all gets rotated?

Terah: Well, your underwear, my underwear, bath towels, kitchen towels, your t-shirts, and I used to rotate my socks but I don't anymore. I probably rotated them for about 9 years.

Me: So I'm supposed to start taking underwear from the front-left pile each week. What happens after I have used three pair?

Terah: Well, you move to the front center, then front right, then you go to the back right and work your way back left, making a circle.

Me: This is great. I'm going to have to blog about it. I think I should take a picture of my underwear drawer and post it.

Terah: But why are you laughing so hard? It's not really funny.

While I'm on the subject, Wichita State University is apparently giving personal information about me to military recruiters. I've received numerous calls, from at least two different branches of the military. Some of them know nothing but my name and home phone number. Others appear to know my age, and still others how close I am to graduation and that I'm taking evening classes.

WSU never informed me that they would be sharing this information with the military. I am quite troubled that they do so without my informed consent, and I will be letting them know this.