Monday, Monday

I need another weekend to recover from this last weekend.

Let’s just start with Saturday.  I sprang from my bed in anticipation of a visit from our friendly washing machine repairman.  He arrived bright and early.  I had already cleared out the laundry room, and had dirty laundry sorted and piled on the cement flooring in the hallway (not sure which was worse, All The Laundry, or the cement flooring), awaiting their turn in the newly refurbished washing machine.

The new parts for the machine had arrived a few days before and were stacked in the garage.  The repairman opened them and got to work.  A while later he called me into the laundry room with an ominous, “I’ve got bad news.”  I jammed my fingers into my ears and began singing.  He waited patiently for me to finish, and then informed me that the most important part, the large plastic tub which houses the drum, had arrived broken.  It would not hold water.  As it were.

He went out to the truck to order it again, only to return with more bad news.  The part was on back-order.  He said that I could call the warranty people and plead my case to get them to somehow speed things up.  He couldn’t have been nicer or more apologetic, as he sensed my sadness.

Perhaps it was the heaving sobs.

After he departed, I did indeed call the warranty hot line.  Which is more lukewarm than hot because you are greeted by a frustrating automated machine (the same one I yelled at last week) which is hard of hearing and makes you repeat EVERYTHING.  Twice.  And then it’s still wrong.  When I finally got a human on the line I tried to explain my plight.  Between gasping sobs.  The woman on the other end was evidently heartless and could care less that I was out of underwear.  She had the nerve to end the conversation with “Have a nice day.”  Thankfully she had hung up before she was treated to my reply.

In my desperation, a little later I gathered all 3 children, 4 large loads of emergency laundry, and as many quarters as I could dig out of the couch and headed to the least offensive laundry mat I could find.  I’m thinking that I may need to open up my own laundry mat, because the privilege of using the washing machine costs anywhere from $2 to $4 a load these days, depending on the machine size.  I managed to stuff 4 loads into 4 smallish machines, setting me back only $8.00.

And I opted out of the drying feature of the laundry mat, thinking I might just as well use my own dryer at home, which is still limping along with the use of a well placed wrench.  As an added bonus, my oldest daughter proved to be a huge help in the task, while the younger two sat in the van, which I was able to park right at the entrance.  They provided me with plenty of proud parenting moments as they each took turns coming into the laundry mat to tattle on each other.

Laundry mats really should serve wine coolers.  That’s just a random thought.

Anyhoo.  I’m happy to report that there are clean underwear in the drawers.  For now.  Since hope springs eternal, I’m hoping to have a washing machine by weeks end.

The appliances are winning in the house.  At last count the washing machine, ice maker, and heater were all on strike, with the dryer soon to follow.

The only real ray of sunshine in my weekend was the greatly anticipated season finale of Downton Abbey on Sunday night.

Don’t worry.  I will not spoil it for anyone who has not seen it yet.

But I will say that you should add my television to the list of lost appliances as I may have thrown it out of the window after the finale.

That is all I will divulge.

I’m thinking that the week can only improve from this point on.