The Laundry Situation
Never, before in my life history, have I been so excited about the prospect of doing laundry.
The dryer for my apartment has been on its death kneel for sometime, two months at least. It went to being able to do a half load of laundry to few jeans to a few shirts to finally where it won’t even tumble empty. I played a game of chicken with the other residents, hoping one of them would call the landlord to have it fixed first (and deal with the hassle of having to be at the unit to have it repaired, etc.) but eventually I caved. I had to.
The laundry situation started to get really desperate. Hanging up clothes to dry will do in a pinch, but is clearly not a good long-term strategy. They get way too stiff and uncomfortable. Don’t ask me how they did it on Little House of the Prairie — maybe fabric softner is like tivo: once you know life with it, you can’t go back.
This past weekend it got bad enough that I had to hunt down a coin-op facility. Not an easy task in southwest Pasadena. All the places listed under “laundromat” in a 2 mile radius of my house where the dry cleaner type. Most where closed and the few that where open, wouldn’t be able to get me my clothes back before Monday. I gave in and ventured (*gasp*) north of the 210.
I’ve been on a minimal life-support type support system, hauling only the minimal amount of laundry I felt necessary, but now I can tackle the mountain of dirty clothes in my room. Yes, once again I shall see the floor.
Between the dryer breaking & the garbage disposal, I went through a bit of a Lord of the Flies moment. Yes, I mean that both as an allusion and literally. I started to wear shirts I hadn’t in years on the weekend so I could wear the good tshirts to work. With the garbage disposal broken, I couldn’t run the dishwasher either… meaning the dirty dishes started to pile up. Until they were all used. All of them.
Anyway, it’s good to be back in civilized life. Or at least at close to it as I’ve ever gotten.
