I have long suspected that the appliances in my house conspire against me. What else could possibly explain their uncanny tendency of dying in clusters and at the worst possible times?
The refrigerator once died the night before we were to leave on a week-long vacation. Three years ago, the coffee maker, the microwave, and the dishwasher all gave up the ghost within a two week period. The following year, the oven breathed its final breath while I was cooking a pricey standing rib roast for Easter dinner. A few months ago, the washer decided to leave this earthly realm in the middle of a large load of jeans. Nothing spells laundry day misery quite like having to hand-wring the water out of several pairs of men's jeans. There's also my cranky cook top which randomly chooses whether or not it will actually cook on any given day. I imagine it being like Scarlet O'Hara in Gone with the Wind: I'll think about cooking to-mah-row.
Our latest appliance casualty is the clothes dryer. At 13 years of age, it's far from new, but should definitely have had some years left in it. My washer lasted 17 years. Shouldn't the dryer have hung in there a while longer?
Not only did it die with a full load of my son Evan's clothes in it, including every single pair of jeans he owns, but we didn't discover that it failed to dry them until 20 minutes before Evan's school bus was due to arrive. We scrambled around, trying to find a pair of pants for Evan to wear. Unable to find any, Evan had to wear a wet pair of jeans to school.
Yes, it's inconvenient when your dryer dies, but it's even more of an issue if you can't afford to replace it right away. In a month plagued with reduced income, property taxes, and a host of other surprise expenses, replacing a broken dryer won't be in our budget for another few months at the earliest.
As the Great Recession continues to march on, and I've watched income, savings, and safety nets disappear, it's been difficult to remain hopeful that our current situation will eventually improve. Even though I tried to deal with this latest appliance demise as best I could, I felt utterly defeated by it. I just couldn't shake the feeling that this was one more thing I didn't need, one more thing in a long list of disappointments, one more expense I simply couldn't afford. I felt as if the Universe had kicked me once again in my financial gut and I wasn't sure I'd recover from it.
It had been three days since the dryer died and I was no closer to figuring out how to replace it. The laundry was piling up, and everyone in the house was out of clean socks. The idea of hanging up each individual sock to dry wasn't something I was looking forward to, but I didn't have hours to spend at the laundromat either.
Anyone familiar with me knows that I get these "nudges" from time to time, these whispers of consciousness that guide me in knowing how to proceed in my life. They can be as small as warnings of a speed trap ahead while I'm driving to bigger things such as how best to proceed with an important decision.
I'd been pondering the issue of the deceased dryer all day and feeling quite depressed by it. I was right in the middle of the mother of all pity parties when a nudge came to try the dryer one more time.
What a ridiculous idea, I thought. I'd already tried the dryer a half dozen times with the same outcome: it wouldn't tumble, it wouldn't heat, and it smelled as if it was burning down. It groaned loudly as if struggling mightily to tumble. My husband Dan tried it, too, to see if it was something he could fix, and it wouldn't even turn on for him. We both agreed that the dryer was officially dead.
Still, the nudge was insistent: try the dryer again.
I opened the doors to the laundry closet. If I was going to give this nudge of mine the best chance for a positive outcome, I did everything I'd normally do prior to running the dryer. I cleaned out the dryer lint, I turned the dial to the normal time, and I pushed the start button.
Unbelievably, it worked. To my astonishment, the dryer started right away and began tumbling normally. There was no bad smell and no odd sounds. I turned the dial to the off-position and opened the door. It was warm inside!
I don't know how it happened, but it did: my dryer apparently resurrected itself from the dead on the third day, just like Jesus.
No matter how unlikely or inexplicable, this bit of grace was just what I needed to pull me out of my funk and restore my hope that maybe things will indeed get better. Who knew that a dryer could heal itself and my sagging faith, all at the same time?
Hmm...maybe there's hope for my bank account.
Comments
There's a shocking lot of free stuff out there. People get rid of perfectly good dryers just because they get a new washer and it doesn't match. Seriously. People do that.
Remembering when 20 wasn't an old age for an appliance ...
Jane - Thank you! You made me smile. :) I did actually look on Craigslist. The cheapest I found was $250 and I didn't have the funds so I'm thrilled that the dryer decided to heal itself - ha ha!
nerd cred - Freecycle - I hadn't thought of them. Thanks for the tip - and for stopping by. I am with you in mourning the youthful ages at which appliances pass these days.
Rated and appreciated
--r
oh, i see the face in the shadows too, but to me it looks like frank zappa. :)
rated
Dennis - You are always so kind and thoughtful. Thank you!
Mary - So nice to see you! I agree; it can't be explained but I appreciate it just the same.
Myriad - Your comment made me laugh.
mamoore - What a great story! I wonder if the Universe thinks we can handle these things and then realizes, nope, we can't. Whatever the reason, yay us. XOXO
jlsathre - I know, right? I'm amazed by the image in the shadow. I just took that photo quickly this morning!
Joan - And I love YOU. XOXO
Erica - Amen!
Victoria - Thank you for your comment. It's nice to know that I'm not alone in this. Hope things improve for all of us SOON.
Jen - I love you, too. Thanks for "getting" it.
Sheila - I can't wrap my head around the knowledge that some people throw away perfectly good things but I suppose they do. Hopefully I'll be able to find such a deal before Jesus Dryer decides to ascend to heaven!
Candace - I'm laughing at your comment about Frank Zappa. :)
Susan - ...or a grilled cheese sandwich.
Sally - Thanks for the compliment. Thankfully, no Axe was involved in this particular miracle.
Stim! Best laugh I've had all day. You know that I'm always going to remember it whenever I see the Jesus Dryer, don't you? April Fresh? Bwahaha!
hugs, me - Your comment made my day. Thank you SO much. XOXO
ellen - Thanks for the kind words. I love your suggestion about lighting candles for my appliances - too funny! But it just might work. :)
Bellwether - Sounds like we're both leading parallel lives. I honestly expected the stove to go before the dryer. Here's to both of us getting through this nastily-expensive time.