There's a Lot of Funny in An Un-Funny Situation

It's funny how you don't appreciate anything until you don't have it. Like the dryer. When I pushed the button the other day to make it magically dry my laundry, and it simply clicked at me but did nothing else, I was a bit panicked. But then I noticed that there was a light lit up that said "sensing load." I have no idea if my dryer is always sensing things, or if this is a first (funny, also, how you never pay attention to detail when things work the way they're supposed to), but I figured if it wanted to be all sensitive for a while, I'd let it. When it was done sensing things, it would dry my towels and we'd both be happy. But I didn't have time to stand there and wait while it thought about life. Or laundry.

Forty five minutes later, I heard it's happy bells telling me that it was done. Turns out, it was just done sensing things, and it pretty much just decided that it didn't want to work. Another funny thing is how your stomach just drops when something that's just taken for granted suddenly stops being reliable. I did what any woman would do. I told my husband. And he took the news just as wonderfully as you'd expect a husband to. At least some things are still reliable.

After looking at the thing for a while, Sam decided it best to call the repairman. The news was not good. He has two exact models in his repair shop that are pretty much just taking up space until he can haul them to the scrapyard. When the computer board goes out of them, the cost to repair is as much as the cost to buy new, and every homeowner makes the same choice in the end. But since his service call was only $35, I figured he could look at it and try to determine a problem before we just wrote the whole thing off and spent money we didn't have on a new one. Or money I was desperately saving for a vacation we probably couldn't afford to take. Either way, it's the same thing.

So the things I learned while talking with the repairman are pretty interesting. I'll recap with the pertinent information that one should never turn an appliance on and go to bed, or leave the house. I know some of you are all, "well duh, that's just common sense right there," and then others of you are in my camp, and we're over here with confused looks on our faces, and the thought bubble hanging above our heads is saying, "Why?," or it's just empty because we can't wrap our minds around the fact that some people would be freaked out over the fact that we do this frequently. Turns out, appliances can catch fire, or flood houses when left unattended. Provided, of course, that something breaks while the appliance is on and we're not home to catch it. In which case, really bad things definitely would happen.

I have decided that while I think I turn appliances on and leave the house a lot, in reality, I don't leave the house that  much. I have also decided that I am an optimist and no amount of pessimism will bring me down. I will continue to risk appliance failure and, on occasion, as the situation warrants, leave the house while the dishwasher is still working.

As I was deciding this in my head, the repairman found the fuse that was blown inside my dryer and replaced it. The 90 minute house call and the part, together, cost me $66.78. Funny how that would have frustrated me to no end to have to spend just three days ago, but in light of having to buy an all new dryer, I was now doing the happy dance in my mind as I wrote out a check.

Funny, too, is how I was thinking the bed skirt and all the sheer curtains could use a washing when the dryer was broke, and was frustrated that I couldn't wash (because I'm not hanging laundry out to dry in 30 degree rain/sleet/slush), and now that the dryer is back up on it's feet again, the bed skirt and sheers are looking much cleaner. Unwashed.

And I'm really, really glad that the towels that sat in the dryer for 2 days were dog towels. They have a smell that'll never really come out, so maybe dryer funk will be an improvement. I really didn't want to air dry those in my kitchen.