The linen pants were wrinkly, and fresh out of the dryer. The label said, “Use only cool iron”, so I got out my iron—touched it to be sure it was cool—and got to work.

From the beginning things didn’t go well. and before long I was chasing little wrinkles up and down; exacting one crease from the leg above, while creating one on the leg below. I touched the iron again to make sure it was sufficiently cool.

The rest is best forgotten, or certainly best concealed. I finally put things away, with only marginal improvement for the effort. When Kathy came home, she wasn’t a bit appreciative to see that I’d tried to iron her “best” pants.

I do hope you used a cool iron, she said.