Monday, April 27, 2009

Minor Emergency

I opted this week to wash all of the laundry in one long marathon session on Friday and just piled it up on the living room couch until I could fold it all on Saturday morning, rather than do a load a day as Flylady suggests. I would have put it in baskets, but I simply don't own enough baskets to do this. I have deluded myself into thinking that if I don't have enough baskets, I will be forced to fold the clean laundry before I can wash more. In reality, it just means that the clean laundry remains in the basket and I don't wash more clothes because I don't have a place to put them. Folding laundry is one of my least favorite chores. I have absolutely no problem actually washing the clothes, but since I was a teenager and began doing my own laundry, the clothes have gone from the dryer to the basket and sat forever. I have tried to break this cycle, but I seem to keep coming back. I can have baskets of clean clothes, but no one can manage to find their socks. Of course, matching up all those socks is another matter.

The folding of the laundry went quite smoothly this week. I managed to get my 2 older children to do the bulk of the work which I think may have been one of the more brilliant ideas I have ever had. I went to get the last load of laundry from the dryer only to discover that it was still damp. "Hmm, I'm sure I started that" I thought. Of course, I've done that before; neglected to start the dryer when I moved laundry over. I twisted the knob to get it going and nothing happened. No sound, no click, nothing. My dryer was doing a wonderful impression of a large harmless metal box.

That's a problem.

There are 7 people in this house, not to mention that I cloth diaper 2 of those people. We do A LOT of laundry. True this was the last load from a weeks worth of clothes, but there were still the diapers to consider...

I checked the plug. Yep, it's plugged in. I am quite the mechanical genius there.

I checked the breaker. It was labeled clearly. I flipped it back and forth. Didn't make a bit of difference.

Well, that was it. That's all I've got.

I mentioned morosely to my Uncle who came over for dinner about the dryer, thinking that I would either have to pay a repair guy to come look at it or go buy a new one.

"Hmm" He said and disappeared out the front door. He came back a few minutes later with a bunch of tools and began industriously unscrewing things on the dryer.

"Wow, look at that! That wire is completely fried through" he showed me.

"Huh" I replied

"Well, we should be able to find out what did that" he replies calmly and keeps unscrewing things.

"So, we need a new plug?" I ask hopefully

"Nah, I can splice that, no need to buy a new one"

"Oh!" I say. My uncle is obviously an electrical genius. I'm glad he's over here so much.

I layed out the remains of the load of laundry and the load of diapers that I desperately needed to wash and settled in for a long haul. I didn't have to wait long. About 24 hours after I discovered the dryer's trechery, my uncle had managed to repair the plug and magically it was working again.

We never did find out what had caused the plug to burn out, but I'm not terribly concearned since the load of diapers is now soft and fluffy from tumbling in the newly repaired dryer!

9 comments:

  1. Wonderful! It's a good thing you have him to do stuff like that for you. I would have sat down and cried in defeat.

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  2. I have the same habit of leaving the clean laundry in the basket forever... in fact, just this morning I had to hunt through baskets of laundry to find clean clothes for me and the kids!

    How lucky to have your uncle to repair things like that... next time we have a minor emergency, can I call your uncle?

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  3. haha... i have no problem putting laundry in the washer and dryer... but i leave my clean clothes in the basket too! haha... right now there's about 4 loads of clean clothes piled up on my bed... they either have to be folded and put away before i go to bed tonight or they're going on the floor! haha ;)

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  4. That happened to my washing machine last week. Found a full load of wash sitting in a tub of water, and the machine wouldn't run, and the room had a funny burnt smell. I called a repairman who couldn't believe I had a 20 year old machine. I figured we'd be buying a new one, but then I got it to run and drain (while I was cold from wringing out the clothes.) Now it;s working, but I think I am just playing with fire!
    I'm glad your machine is running now - talk about stress!

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  5. I'm glad your crisis was averted. I watch people go into laundromats and I wonder how they can stand that. It would kill me to have drag all of my laundry there every week and then sit and wait for it to be finished. I guess there would be an advantage though, I could get all of my laundry done in 2 hours. Hmm. Maybe there is something to that? Nice to have a handy uncle!

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  6. Dryers can be tricky! I do FlyLady too but I don't follow her load a day suggestion. I only wash mine and Kens clothes. The kids do theirs.

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  7. You must be paying your tithing : )

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  8. ::whew:: When I was in the middle of the story- I was worried how it was going to end! Love your writting- it's like reading a novel! Hehe I'm glad all is fixed and well. :) My parents make me fold ALL the laundry as my chores...can't wait til college starts again. Haha
    <3 Em

    www.thevirginknitter.com

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