Todays mission, should I choose to accept it

Was the hand washing.
Among my many pet hates, the hand washing of large woollen items (usually belonging to Barney) ranks very highly indeed. So, we have between us, nearly enough woollies of the hand washing variety to last a whole winter. And come Spring, I suddenly feel guilty about the big heaps of apparently abandoned old woollies, to accept that it has to be done, TODAY! No! not later today, not before I do anything else tomorrow but NOW!
So I did. It's unbelievable how much water there is in a heap of wet woollies (a whole winter's worth anyway). So as a by product, the utility floor gets washed, the spin dryer gets an airing and the washing baskets, the spare washing up bowl and most of the area around the washing machine (and also around the bath because the bath is the only place in the house big enough for the washing of one woollie, never mind lots) get cleaned too.
I expect there are washing machines that don't do whatever it is to woollies that mine does and which makes them slightly too short and somehow changes the texture from nice to nasty. Mine is not one of those and so some of our woollies aren't as nice as they used to be.
The whole exercise is yet another way of reminding me about stitches in time (but we don't mention those around here). I do have a gadget on which to dry woollies flat. Two of them. So another by product of the hated hand washing day is a festooning of the house with draped woollies. And since a lot of them were discovered at various times my my wicked little black and white cat, as they dry, cat hair floats around the house, catching the light and getting in my mouth.
Anyway, as I knelt beside the bath, squeezing the first twenty gallons of water out of the soggy things, I thought about mangles. (Wringers to you Mel :).
I thought, I wonder who invented them. Was it a woman, pissed off with the whole business of squeezing (not wringing) and hauling wet wool around? Was it a kindly husband, concerned for his wife's struggles? Or a fisherman! Unmarried and with no Mum to do it for him. Or a person with a curious and inventive mind who suddenly saw a different way of doing the job without, themselves being involved.

Perhaps a shepherd?

I googled mangle and got no answer. But it was invented 'some time in the 18th Century'.
That's a huge lot of water and wool being squeezed and shovelled around and hauled before anyone found an easier way to do the job!
Come to think of it, I expect the washing of woollens always got done at the end of winter. By whole households all heaving bowls of water and big heaps of wet wool and hanging it all in the wind and then jumping out of the way of the spray!
Oh but then I don't suppose they had so many woollies as we do. On the other hand, the families would be bigger so there might be a minimum of anything up to ten or twelve even at the rate of one woollie each.
Well there you go. I've run out of thoughts about hand washing and I'm hungry. Also slightly satisfied, though I wish I'd done it a week or three ago when I needed the turquoise and blue woollie. (to wear with the turquoise and blue earrings with pearls on the ends)
Better make tea.
I wish you all a very productive and enjoyable Wednesday evening - the sun's shining again here, hope yours is too :)