The Dryer, Part 1

At some point in this calendar year my dryer quit.  I can't remember when it was.  January?  February?  It was definitely one of those because we're in March and it wasn't this month.  Beyond that, everything runs together.

Anyway, the dryer quit.  In the middle of a load of wet laundry.  With a load in the washer.  And at least 2 more waiting to be washed.  Of course the dryer would pick that day to quit.  That's the way dryer strikes work.

It was just before I had to pick up the kids from school so I packed up the wet clothes and hauled them to the laundry room at the apartment management office.  I didn't have any quarters so I tossed the wet clothes in the machines and looked around for a change machine.  There was none.  So I hoofed it to the manager's office and asked for change.  They didn't have any.  I may have muttered some not-so-nice words in the general direction of the unhelpful staff (they deserve it -- this place is a hole and they're incompetent like you wouldn't believe. I need to devote a post to that.).  I definitely stormed out, packed up my wet clothes and did a quick laundromat search for this ZIP code.  I found one.

But by then it was time to pick up the kids.  I called them and told them that I had to go to a laundromat and could they please walk home?  Fortunately it was a beautiful day and they took the opportunity to play at the various playgrounds between school and home.  I got the clothes dried at the laundromat (that has half a dozen change machines! Imagine that!) and came home just as the kids trooped upstairs, all tired out from their adventures in Playground Land.

Oh!  As I left the laundromat I was pushing one of those wheeled, stainless-steel baskets with the hanging bar at the top to the door so I could take my clothes out to the car.  One of the wheels stuck on the corner of a tile and the basket stopped.  I, however, did not.  I proceeded to slam my left cheekbone into the steel bar supporting my clothing.  I hit it so hard I bit my tongue and felt my teeth jar against each other.  I literally saw stars before I even figured out what happened.  Ow-flippin'-ouch!

I whined to Paul about my awful afternoon and he whined to me about his broken down car.  Yes, his transmission went completely kaput on the very same day and stranded him in downtown Denver with a big towing bill.  Not a spectacular day for either of us.  He proposed a couple of possible problems with the dryer and promised to help me with it.  I could not propose any problems with his car, nor could I promise to help with it.  But we shared some wine and commiserated together.

A couple of days later I'd managed to disassemble most of the dryer but I still wasn't sure what was wrong with it.  Needless to say, I had more laundry to do so I figured the best plan was to gather the essentials into one load and wash them at home, then take them to the laundry room here in the complex and dry them.  I would, of course, be sure to take my own quarters since the management here can't seem to maintain a change machine.

On the night I absolutely had to wash clothes it was snowing and dark and cold and windy.  I took the wet freezing clothes to the laundry room.  Guess what?  One of the dryers was locked up so that no quarters could be inserted.  The other one didn't work.  I know because I put 6 quarters in it and ended up with still-wet clothes 45 minutes later.  (Also, the laundry room is supposed to have 2 washing machines.  On the night I was there they only had one and it had an 'Out of Order' sign on it.  Oh, and the lights in the room didn't work so I was doing all this by the light of a broken soda machine.  Do you understand my muttered not-so-nice words a little better now?)  I then had to hike back to my car with 50+ pounds of wet clothes in the cold and snow.  And I slid in the snow and fell on my butt with the 50+ pounds of wet clothes landing on top of me.  I was reallyreallyreallyreally not happy.

When I got back upstairs I still had to have dry pants for everyone.  That meant picking out the essentials for everyone, hanging them up in my bathroom and turning a fan on them full-blast.  They were sufficiently dry for the next morning.  Thank heaven for small favors, huh?

Anyway, that's the story of the broken down dryer.  Actually, that's not all of it.  There's the whole ordeal of actually fixing it, which Paul and I did.  And I have pictorial evidence!  But that will have to wait for another post because it's now Miriam's bedtime and she's demanding her (rightful, promised) computer time.