For some time I've been annoyed at the ****trayal of men/fathers on
sitcoms. A boob, usually, who gets himself into some mess because he
doesn't understand the workings of basic home appliances, plumbing, or
cooking. I've been doing quite well for some time now, can cook, though
not up to gourmet standards (or even the standards of some of afc-a), been
doing my own laundry, ironing (when necessary) and home repair holds no
fears for me.
My wa****ng machine here is somewhat small, and I can't get a king size
comforter, or comforter in it. Depending on how fluffy it is, I might not
be able to get a full size one in. There used to be a laundry facility on
site, but they closed it to use the room as storage, so I have to haul the
large bed linens over to a laundromat, pay several dollars for each load,
more for the king size stuff, and then hang around while they get washed
and dried.
I found myself with four such, them having piled up as I put off hauling
them to the laundromat. However there was an aha! moment when I thought
I'll take them to work and do them there. I'm fini****ng up general
contracting a laundry room renovation at a condo building, and there are
****ny new machines in that I could use while I'm fini****ng up the punch
list. Even better the machines are much cheaper than the laundromat.
Arrive at work, stuff the bedgoods in the machines, whoops, forgot
detergent. No worries, walk a block to a Walgreens, get the stuff, back,
soap in, coins in and off to work. I even got to use largish front loaders
for the larger blankets. Worked for about 40 minutes, back to check and
they're all done. However, (you were waiting for this, weren't you?) while
the blanket in the standard machine was ok, the 3 front loaders looked to
be full of suds. I had forgotten that front loaders take less detergent
than the top loader.
I put more money in one of them and put it through another cycle. No good.
Suds still there. More money, and another cycle might have helped, but
somehow, I didn't think so. I found a large garbage can (used for storage
of some piping, so it was clean), dumped one duvet into it, and ran water
from a hose to cover the duvet. Squashed it around until it was rinsed.
Then I had to drain the water out into a floor drain, but even with this
the duvet is a soggy mess, and can't be put into a dryer that way, so I
rigged a place to hang it up while some of the water dripped out. I'd have
to wait a while, maybe come back the next day, but there was nothing else
to do.
I did the same thing with the other two, but while hanging them up, I
realized there was a solution. I could put them into a top loader, run
them through a cycle, and they would be spun dry, then they could go into
the dryer, packed up and then hauled back home.
That worked and it was about time something went right. Still, from start
to finish, it was about 3 hours, though I got some small work done in the
meantime. It probably cost me 5 times what I was going to save by taking
the bedcovers to work, not to mention the lost work time, the mess that
had to be cleaned up, and the embarassment. The tv shows may have had
something after all.
But I didn't set anything or -one on fire.
--
charles
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