July 28th, 2026

Way back toward the beginning of July when I was writing about Tim's and my birthday, I neglected to mention the biggest and most unexpected gift I got on my big day.  My washer broke down after the very first load.  Dang. And before you ask why on earth I was doing laundry on my birthday and isn't that against my own birthday rules, let me remind you that the rule is that I get to do exactly what I please on my birthday and one of the things I was pleased to do (initially anyway) was laundry.  It was my dang day, I'll spend it the way I wish.

The way I knew that the washer was broken was that it was holding my laundry hostage.  That's right, the cycle was complete, the door was locked and it refused to unlock.  Well, that was unexpected.  My first thought was to try to trick the washer into unlocking by running a second, shorter cycle and surely, when the cycle was complete, the door would pop open and all would, once again, be well with the world.  Great idea.  Except for the part where it didn't work.  Double dang.

So I went online, typed in the model/serial number/etc  to check for trouble shooting tips.  Door that refuses to unlock was a category (not those exact words, but close enough) and they had three ideas for how to correct the problem. The first was to unplug the washer, let it sit a minute and think about what it had done, replug it and voila, the door should magically unlock.  It did not.  Is there a triple dang?

The second tip was what I had already done, run a different cycle.  It did not work the first time I did it. It also did not work the second time. And in fact, the second time it not only did not unlock the door, it also did not run the cycle.  Clearly things were not only bad, but getting worse.

The third tip involved opening some mysterious hidden panel that was beyond my ability OR interest.  By then I had given up. Feeling dejected and a little bummed, I told Tim about the issue.  Of immediate importance was getting that door unlocked so that I could rescue the clean wet clothing.  The dryer still works, after all. But if the wet stuff sits too long it'll become moldy wet stuff and that is never good.  

I suspect that Tim tried the 3rd tip and was able to find the secret hidden panel because he was able to open the door. Huzzah!  I quickly tossed everything into the dryer and was feeling pretty good about things.  Tim suggested that before I attempted to actually wash anything else, I should run an empty cycle first just in case the door locked me out again.  Good Thought!  

Once again, I set the washer to run the shortest cycle, hit start, it lit up and then about 90 seconds later, turned itself off.  Well crap.  Just to be thorough, I tried every cycle available and the same thing happened each time.  Insert big annoyed sigh here.

I really didn't want to even think about it for another moment on that particular day and so I did not.   Except to book a repair person. It turned out that the washer was still under warranty so yes, I abso-freakin-lutely was going to go the repair route.  our washer, by the way, is only two years old. I know that appliances do not last like they used to in the olden days, but two years is crazy.  I called the number on the warranty paperwork and got a robot phone answerer.  It asked pertinent questions, I answered them and then it sent me a website and an identification code.  So I went to the website, answered more questions, put in my secret decoder ring code.  The website authorized the repair, acknowledged the warranty *yay* and offered me dates for the repair person to come out.  I took the first one which was Tuesday.  (remember this all began on my birthday which was a Thursday this year).

  Obviously I was going to have to do somthing I realllllllly did not want to do and that was, go to the laundromat.

 I waited until the next day, gathered baskets full of the remainder of the wash that did not get done the day before, laundry pods, dryer sheets and my keys and headed to my local laundromat.  It had been probably ten years since I'd been there and things change so I wasn't positive what I was walking into and I'm sure that I showed my hesitation on my face.  I stood there like a statue, two very full baskets in my arms, purse slung cross body, sunglasses popped on top of my head and cast my eyes around the room trying to, I don't know orient myself to a new environment?  Within about 5 minutes, a very nice lady came up to me, introduced herself, told me that she ran the place and she kind of toured me around.

The last time I was there, quarters were the thing. A person had to have quarters to run the machinery. Lots and lots of quarters.  I used to go to the bank first and get a couple of rolls of quarters before going.  This time I was able to get the job done with a credit card.  So Much Easier!  Every machine had it's own card reader and it was just a matter of getting the knack of making that particular machine pleased with the speed of the swipe. Not too fast, not too slow.

So I got the laundry done, the lady was nice, the machines were easy to use, the laundromat is ON island which means I was able to drive there without having a heart attack and so I really have nothing to complain about. But I will anyway.  

First of all, I am grateful beyond measure that we have a laundromat and, again, that is was reasonably clean and easy to use and the lady who runs it was so nice BUT I do not like going to the laundromat. Not even sure why, just know that I don't.  And I never have.  There have been huge portions of my life when going to the laundromat was a regular bi-weekly thing.  During college when I'd take text books with me to study while the machine hummed along and during the warmer seasons, walk over to dairy queen to get a cone to eat while waiting.  When the boys were babies and I'd carry baskets of laundry, handfuls of toddlers and a hipful of baby to juggle while taking care of laundry business.  Again, when I was a single mom and the boys were older and we would go early on a Sunday morning when nobody else was there, the boys could entertain themselves and help fold/carry baskets/keep me company.  And of course, as I said earlier, when we first moved here and the house didn't have a washer/dryer hooked up yet.

So I'm familiar with the concept.  And to be honest, some laundromats are more disgusting than others.  I'm thinking way back now, to a particular laundromat when someone had relieved themselves in an "inconspicuous" inside corner despite there being bathrooms on site, there were remnants of gum in a dryer that I did not notice until I took the dried clothes OUT of the tumbler (sigh) and someone walked off with one entire load of my stuff out of the dryer.  (bigger sigh). In comparison, our local laundromat is heaven sent. But it is still a laundromat and I have to load stuff in the car, drive over, haul it out of the car into the building, afterward haul it back out into the car, drive home, carrying it inside and THEN put things away or in the ironing pile.

I think the worst part is the inefficiency.  When I do laundry at home, once the loads are started I can then move on to doing other things.  As every woman knows, multi-tasking is how things get done around the house.  Laundromat is single tasking. Humph.

ANYWAY, Eventually Tuesday rolled around and the repair guy showed up, found the problemS  yes, that's right plural problems.  There were three issues.   Told me he had to order parts and would be in touch to schedule the actual repair once they had come in and no, he had no idea when that would be.  I felt as if I was held hostage by the washer once again.

So I continued going to the laundromat  multiple times a week, getting better and better at the swipe timing as time went by and then one glorious day Tim got the call and booked it, Dan-O.  Last Friday, late afternoon, a repair guy came with three boxes (I assume the parts in question) and spent a few hours taking out the old, putting in the new and making sure it all worked. Beefore he left,  I told him he was my new favorite person. He grinned.

I do not believe I have ever been so happy in my life to do laundry as I am right now.  I have not only done the usual clothes and towels but blankets, comforters, mattress covers.........basically anything that fits in the washer has now been washed.  I am absolutely delighted.

Y'know it occurs to me that I ought to be at least a little embarrassed by how affected I was by not having a working washer.  After all, I'm just a few generations out from women who used to wash board to scrub clothes and boiled them in big pots.  I'm not sure if they would think I was weak and spoiled, or if they would be envious of how good I have it.  Maybe a little of both