Two weeks ago, our clothes dryer went kaput. I was in the middle of doing the laundry, of course (when else would one discover issues with a dryer), getting ready for a visit from my parents on the upcoming weekend. So, the dryer keeps throwing the circuit breaker and seriously over-dried a load of clothes...major wrinkles.
(I also have to throw in here, because it has come up in conversation, that yes, we do live in a parsonage, but the washer and dryer are ours. Most of the other appliances belong to the church, but not those.)
The repairman came, and said it was a thermostat issue, so I could use the dryer on the timed cycles, but not on the automatic cycle until the part came in and the dryer could be repaired. He still couldn’t figure out the breaker issue, though. So, per his instructions, I tried the dryer on the timed cycle. It threw the breaker again, and I had a load of wet clothes on my hands.
So, the next morning, he came back and figured out that the problem was not the thermostat, but the motor, and it would be more expensive to fix it than to replace the dryer. Joy...
By this time, it is Thursday. Thursday night, we had a family outing to go dryer shopping, in and around MJ’s basketball practice, of course. It wasn’t like we had a big block of time to go shopping that week. We found a dryer, and my husband and father picked it up and hooked it up that weekend, and I commenced to wash the mountains of laundry that had accumulated during the whole ordeal.
I did learn something from all of this. Your whole attitude about something as mundane as laundry, even, can change, just because of perspective. I’ve done my share of groaning and complaining about laundry. With a family of 5, including 3 small children, there is a lot of laundry. Since the dryer incident, though, my perspective has definitely changed. I appreciate having the ability to wash and dry our clothes. I’m thankful that I can keep up to speed on this task and not have mountains of dirty laundry in every closet of our house. I’m thankful that I can serve my family in this way.
How’s that for a change of perspective?
Now I need to fold some laundry....
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
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Living overeas my perspective on laundry has changed. We are fortunate to have a washing machine. Or should I say our housekeeper is fortunate. Anyway, we took a trip this weekend and passed numerous women sitting outside in the dirt washing clothes by hand. Then the laundry has to be hung to dry and then ironed. EVERYTHING HAS to be ironed. Why? Because flies lay eggs on the clothes. Ironing kills the fly eggs. A different perspective on laundry. I think when we move back to the states I will start hanging my clothes out to dry. We won't need to iron everything like we do here because we don't have the same fly problem but we can save a lot of electricity.
ReplyDeleteOh I love my washing machine! I once threw a temper tantrum about my family's disregard for my laundry efforts. I went on a laundry strike... for 10 days. No one paid for my temper tantrum as much as I did. I don't think they really even noticed. Being able to do a load or 2 or 3 a day is such a luxury! Let me not forget this.
ReplyDeleteNancy-of the crazy 8