Laundry day is always "fun" for me. At best, it's a short walk across the apartment grounds with a bulky, heavy basket in hand. At worst, it has been a mess of broken washers, lost money, and stolen laundry baskets. Today was probably an "in-the-middle" day.
The first mistake I made was to leave without enough quarters. Any time you leave the house without enough quarters for the washer, you know you're in for trouble. I wasn't too worried though, I would just stop by the coin machine at the car wash when I stopped to put air in my tires.
Nope. Plan fail. Coin machine non-operable today. Shoot. As I walked back to the car, I thought about my options. "I could go to the laundromat up the street." I almost turned the car toward the main road, but then realized two things: That laundromat is almost twice as expensive as the one at the apartment, and I had bread baking in the crock pot. (Yes, you read that last part correctly.)
So now on to plan B. I could just make do with the quarters I had. A quick check to the coin purse revealed enough quarters to wash one load of clothes. Now I had another dilemma: What should I wash? I stared at the two baskets in front of me. Should I was this load so that I could drift off to sleep on fresh, soft sheets? What about my favorite pair of jeans? Or that new shirt that I adore so much? Oh yeah, my stupid work slacks. I might need clean clothes for work.
Sigh...what was I going to wash? "Wait! Even if I wash the clothes, I will need to dry them! I can't wash the clothes and then not dry them!!" Sure, I could hang them to dry on the shower curtain or even the DRYING RACK that I bought like I had many times before, but tonight I just wanted the clothes dried now. It was inconceivable that I wait until the next day to wash and dry the clothes, after I would have been able to stop and get a roll or two of quarters from the bank. No, I had to find a solution now.
Vending machine!! I remembered that someone had once told me to feed dollar bills to the vending machines and get quarters back. Since there is a vending machine in the laundry room, I felt like I had hit the jackpot. About thirty seconds later, it sounded like I had hit the jackpot too. I had fed my dollar bill to the machine and kept hearing coin after coin drop into the return. Was I the recipient of a damaged yet generous machine? No, I was getting dimes back. Grr... Now, not only did I still have no quarters, but I lost a dollar bill that could have been turned into quarters.
Again I was faced with the dilemma of what to wash and the knowledge that I would be turning my bathroom into a makeshift laundry room. I was discouraged. Then, suddenly, an idea came to my mind: This vending machine might be spitting out useless dimes, but there were TWO MORE vending machines in the complex. Out the door of the laundry room and over to the pool area I went. Yes! Thank goodness! Four dollar bills and a walk back to the laundry room later, I had enough quarters to wash AND dry my clothes tonight.
And that, my friends, is why I will be purchasing appliances soon. Even on the good days when I am smart enough to accumulate the required number of tokens before attempting to start laundry day, it's still an obnoxious process that I'm losing money on in the long run. So tonight I will spend some time setting up a mini savings account for myself, with the ultimate goal being a new-to-me washer/dryer set.
Well, once again it is time to close. That crock-pot bread? Not the lightest or fluffiest bread I've ever made, and certainly not as good as my Grandma's bread, but overall it's pretty darn good if I do say so myself. And with that said, it's time to go eat another slice with dinner!
Have a great week everyone!
No comments:
Post a Comment