Wednesday, April 30, 2008

The Laundromat??

Wow, believe it or not I had a new experience today! In my twenty-four years of life, I have never had to wash my clothes anywhere other than the machine that sits in my laundry room. Today though, was my peek into a new window of what other people go through who are not so blessed with this modern convince.

It all started a few days ago when the washer blew up literally covering the entire load enclosed within its grasp with grease. The burning small that filled the house gave it away and hence a call to the repair man was made. Hoping for a speedy fix, he finally arrived today after a four day wait. The good news...it can be fixed!! The bad...it will take until the 12th to fix it. Deciding it was not really worth the price of repair due to its old age, we decided on giving it an early retirement and purchasing a new one to take its much needed place. The date for the arrival, though better, was still not until the 9th of May. And so, in the meantime, with a family of thirteen and people tired of wearing the same clothes, the overflowing baskets were loaded into my Focus and our journey began. Wondering what it would be like, I arrived there with dollar bills (my first mistake) ready to begin the work at hand. Duh, I should have known the machines only take quarter! I mean come on, everybody knows that. Luckily the older gentleman in charge knew they would be people like me and so he was prepared with rolls of quarters to be exchanged for my bills. It took a while to figure out which loads should go where, but at last we (my sister and I) had chartered our course. Anyone who could have seen us would have been laughing inwardly as I tried to figure out where the soap and softener went in these huge machines and what cycle they should be set on. Yet by and by the loads were finished and the overflowing baskets of clothes were finally ready to be loaded back into the car for the drive home. Okay, so this is a little over dramatized, but it was another one of those things to subtract from my list. The one of things that most people have done that I haven’t. You know, on second thought, some bragging rights are worth giving up!!!

My hat goes off to my friend who is living as a pioneer this moment, running her household with absolutely NO running water in her kitchen (while it is being remodeled). I hope all those runs to the bathroom tub to wash dishes will end soon as you have your dream kitchen!!!

5 Comments:

Sharon Fogarty said...

Amy,
I love your blog page; it is quite creative!
so you had your moments in the laundry mat, funny. I only wish I was there to watch.
Ben is here as I write doing the electric. The Cabinets are piled on top of each other covering my entire basement floor where the TV is. As soon as we get the electric inspection we can start on the insulation.
I am still very grateful for my bathroon and hot water on demand. I am indeed keeping a pioneer spirit in all of this realizing that what I have is better than *0% of the world as it is right now.
I miss seeing you. We MUST put a date on the calender.
keep the blogs coming; you might even inspire me to do the same.
Love you,
Sharon

Annette said...

Amy, what a funny story!!! We all need to have those times when we can REALLY appreciate the modern conveniences in our homes!

Kristine said...

I love it Amy!! Congratulations on being bold enough to brave the Laundromat. I hate going in there.. Although I did want to thank you for washing your family's clothes before Sunday. Everyone at Church will appreciate it :P JK

Love ya girl!

Lauren said...

Made more runs to the laundry mat than I care to remember! To sum it up in one word---GROSS!!! But I have washed dishes in the bath tub and cooked on a wood stove because we had no power or kitchen sink. But I know how clothes can PILE UP UNTIL YOU CAN TOUCH THE CEILING :-D! But Bravo for trying something new and conquering the LAUNDRY BEAST!
p.s. repair people and the way they think a large family can live without a washing machine is NUTS!!! LOL!

Skatergrl said...

Thank you all for your thoughts and comments. I loved them!
Kristine, If I knew you'd make such a fuss over our clothes being dirty, I might have waited till Monday to wash them just to see your reaction :p on second thought, I think my pride would have gotten in the way!! LOL.

Love ya guys!!