Spontaneous Combustion
The weekends are my time to be alone, have quiet time and rest. Momma and Mel normally are working so that allows me to sleep in and enjoy the day at my slow pace. I've sort of fallen into a certain routine though that I'm used to. It consists of me waking up, eating breakfast, checking my regular things on the internet, watching What Not to Wear on BBCAmerica and then start my chores.
I always begin my chores with starting a load of laundry. I'm not sure why I chose that to kick off my cleaning spree, but I have and I like it. I like it a lot. It's nice to have the washing machine and the dryer chugging along in the background doing their own thing while I continue on with everything else. It's like one thing that I can start and leave alone. The washer and dryer does everything for me. I can start it and then forget about it.
Well, I forget about it until the timer goes off that lets me know it's time to start a new load.
This past week our dryer died.
We noticed that something was wrong when we opened the door and the light didn't automatically turn on. We also noticed that it didn't matter how long we left the clothes in they never dried. Something was obviously wrong.
On Friday Momma and Mel decided to pull the dryer out and see what was wrong with it. Perhaps a wire had come loose or the lint trap had clogged up the part where the heat comes out. They discovered something a little more frightening.
Our dryer had a shitty installer and two of the wires had melted completely. Talk about a serious fire hazard.
Momma pushed our dryer back into the laundry room and said that we were without a dryer this weekend. We'd have to call someone to come and fix it on Monday.
Monday? Monday! What about laundry? What was I going to do now?!
I wasn't worried about having enough clothes to last me all of next week. I make sure that I shop for enough clothes in case of an emergency like this. I could iron some stuff and take some other things to the dry cleaners. I was more worried about my cleaning routine. How was I going to handle not having the soothing sounds of the washer and dryer in the background while I did my weekend cleaning? How was I supposed to cope?
I didn't. I fell into a mourning and stayed in my room for most of the weekend while I ate double stuf oreos with milk (otherwise known as "homemade chocolate milk") and watched the Simple Life marathon on the E! channel.
It was such a sad sight.
On Saturday I didn't feel like cleaning. I was tempted to separate the clothes that I wasn't taking to the dry cleaners and make my usual piles in the hallway so it would appear like I'd do some laundry but I knew that wouldn't work. I'd only be lying to myself in hopes that our dryer would magically come back to life. There was no point to live in denial.
I went downstairs, attempted to clean the middle floor but quickly ended up on the couch listening to the Dixie Chicks on the radio. There was no hope for me. I just wasn't in the mood.
I am certain now that I simply cannot live without a dryer. I need it. It's not just for my cleaning routine, but it's the other small things that it does for me. Whenever I'm running late in the mornings (which is almost every day) and I want to wear a pair of pants that I don't have time to iron then I can just toss them in the dryer, let it spin for a couple of minutes, shake them out and I'm good to go out the door. Not only that but how nice is it when you pull out fresh, warm clothes or blankets from the dryer? Is that not one of the greatest feelings in the world? It smells nice, feels warm against your skin and you just want to curl underneath it all.
Not only that, dry cleaning is expensive! I dropped off our clothes this morning and it cost me $47.25. What the fuck? Sure, it's convenient, but it takes a serious chunk out of your wallet. I'll take my warm, fresh, cheap dryer over the convenient, expensive dry cleaners any day of the week.