Please excuse my absence from blogging for a few days. I have been rather grumpy and not up to blogging. Apparently a number of appliance-type things have reached their expiration date at the same time. I am neither amused nor happy about this and neither is my bank account. Remember in May when the water heater died. RIP old water heater and I am still waiting for an errant bailout to fall from the sky.
Right before I left for Michigan, my dryer quit working. I spent three days attempting to fix the dryer myself because I am my father's daughter and darn it I should be able to fix things! (My dad can fix and build just about anything). I was equipped with laptop (for googling "how to fix dryers"), flashlight, various screwdrivers, suggestions from Dad, a multimeter (which I had to run to the hardware store to get because well who knew I would need one of these?), and a fierce determination not to spend money on a new dryer.
Meanwhile--laundry was hanging all over the house to dry (for numerous reasons it is not a good idea to hang laundry outside in my neighborhood, trust me on this one and with two jobs, it's really hard to get to a laundromat). Do you know what air-drying does to towels??? They can stand up by themselves and turn into sandpaper--I kid you not. I had "unmentionables" hanging from doorknobs, makeshift clotheslines hanging all over, and I thought I would scare the bejeebers out of myself with sheets draped and looking like ghosts.
The last straw came when I had to wear damp clothes to SBux on Saturday.
Outcome: dryer 1, Gretchen 0.
July 4th I gave up, went to Home Depot after I got off work, and bought a new dryer. It will be delivered in 5 days. I hope this is the last of the large expenses for this year. I'm over it!
Thanks for letting me un-grump. We will return to our regularly scheduled blogginess soon.
14 comments:
How rotten that life's turned on you like that, but that's the way it seems to happen sometimes isn't it. I'd hate not to be able to hang my washing outside, as I only use my dryer on very rare occasions. Thankfully, once you've used your towel once it softens up a bit - and I have never liked really soft towels!
unfortunately it always goes that way. Once one thing breaks it starts off a chain.
hopefully that's it for now and your bank balance can relax for a while.
Love and hugs Gina xxx
Gretch-so sorry about the latest camanity. I know how you feel. I too am fond of soft towels. I remember the hard ones from my youth.
Oh Gretchen that is just miserable...stiff towels...YUCK! It always seems to happen like that though...chain reaction. Hope you get back to quilting...much more fun!
Gosh, sorry about the dryer! I thought you may just go without one if it weren't for those still towels...BTW, I'm on my third wavy wiper...it's not pretty, I'll post later this week.
Sorry to hear about your dryer troubles...sounds like you've been drying clothes in the British Style...trust me it is not uncommon for people to have clothes hanging from every surface in this country..I did until I convinced the DH that doing so was bad for our health and finally got a dryer! My washing machine is the one acting up now but I'm willing it on as I really don't want to replace it until it really dies.
It always seems to happen that way, everything dies at once. Hope things get better for you.
Oh, Gretchen, I'm sorry that the dryer won. I had the same thing happen earlier this year and I also googled. Got the name of an old-fashioned parts place from my neighbor, got two parts, fortunately got my son involved because really it was beyond me, and we got it going again. It was the heating element and the other part I bought was A-OK. The dryer's about 30 years old. And I'm also still smarting from replacing that stupid water heater. And don't even get me started on the tree that I had to remove last September that cost $4K+. I'll never get over that one. But it will be nice for you to have a new dryer, won't it? I hope?
We've all been there. I always think they come in threes for me. I hope it is not the same for you.
my dryer is on its last leg, too - i bought some of those chrome-plated drying racks (with 20% of coupons at BB&B) and hang most of my laundry on them - it ain't pretty, but it'll do for now ...... and when i win the lottery i can use the racks for drying pasta (snort)
Gretchen, I'm so sorry that you're having so many problems. Appliances do seem to all break down at the same time. I remember that if it was a windy day when my mom hung out the clothes and towels that they were soft. Maybe you could put a fan on them as they dry. Of course, it would be hard to fan everything! Thank goodness that my husband can fix just about anything!
Susan Gilliam
Gretchen, OMG! I know this isn't funny but the way you wrote this story had me rolling. What a GREAT post my friend.
Centers for Appliance Control Love, *karendianne.
Ugh...I can feel your frustration! I have faith things can only get better from here!
Gretchen!
We missed you this week! Hope to see you this coming weekend. My husband is like your dad...and mine! A shoestring and a roll of duct tape will make anything last another year or two. In fact, he was so good at keeping our last dryer "going", the repair man (when James finally gave in and called one)said we were lucky the house did not burn down with his "fixins".
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