The weekend of Clare's play, my washing machine did its very last load of wash. I didn't know it was the last...but it was. The penultimate wash went just fine, cleaning a load of darks for my family. On the next load (the last load) the washer hit a wall. It wouldn't drain or spin out the dirty water. I read the manual, tried the trouble shooting suggestions with no luck.
A repair guy came in on Monday morning and took my machine apart. It looked like several fuses had blown in the circuit panel. Our washer and dryer were handed down to us by a friend who was moving to Florida and didn't want to take them across country. We knew they were already well used when we got them. This particular model is no longer manufactured so getting a replacement circuit was out of the question. We were in for a new washing machine! First we had to do some research and find the right machine. So I got to take our family's dirty laundry to the Laundromat! Lucky me!
I loaded up the van with 5-6 loads of laundry and went to the nearest Laundromat while I was waiting the two hours between dance carpool runs. Colter decided to go with me, for a good time. He was kind of in heaven. I realized he and Adell have never been to a Laundromat. Even though I used the Laundromat when we lived in the apartment and Adell was a baby, she has no memory of it. Colter was born when we were settled in an house in Danville with a washer and dryer. I don't even know how many Laundromat memories the big kids actually have. We had a washer and dryer at Stanford and our Redwood City house. It was really just the Menlo Park apartment and when we lived in our very first place in Everett.
Anyway, watching Colter be awed by the gigantic machines and putting quarters in made me weirdly emotional. I just thought, this kid has had a very different first 6 years of life compared to Lorien and Wyatt. He doesn't know how we struggled financially or have any concept of what it was like to be a family with a dad going to school full time instead of working. I don't know how much internalizing Lorien and Wyatt have of that fact either, but they definitely had a different experience in their really early childhood years.
I remember frustrating runs to the Laundromat and wishing for the days when I would have a washer and dryer in my own home so I could forget a load and the biggest price to pay would be musty clothes. I could remember many trips into uncharted Laundromats where I didn't have cash and the Laundromat didn't have an ATM or any way of getting cash. Worse, I can remember Laundromats where they were coin operated but gave no way to turn cash or cards into coins! Each hurdle required a trip to the bank and almost always encounters with bank tellers who were annoyed at my wanting change but not having an account at their bank. I took it very personally. I had a pile of little kids and many piles of laundry. It was always stressful.
I definitely feel like I've come a long way as a Mom and as a maturing person. Mostly I am just so grateful for all the years I have had my own washer and dryer. It is an awesome blessing I cannot wait to get back!
PS It is March 22nd now, my new washer was delivered and set up this morning. I've been doing laundry at home all day. It is so wonderful! I ended up having to go to the Laundromat three times over the three weeks we didn't have a washer. I did 6 loads the first time, 9 the second and 9 again on the third. Lorien helped me out the very last time. It will be good practice for her going off to college. We also had a weird run in with a husband and wife team who complimented Lorien's cute looks and then called their son down to the Laundromat to meet Lorien...it was weird. We were happy to leave.
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