I hate going to the laundromat to wash & dry our clothes. Before, it was because I found it time consuming. With my own washer-dryer, I could multi-task. At a laundromat, I'm stuck for a couple of hours and hopefully have a good book to read. I have a bladder the size of a peanut these days--laundromats do not have restrooms. Why? I haven't figured that one out yet.
Our dryer needs to be fixed. It began making the most gawdawful noise just before Christmas. It sounds like something (like a chain) got stuck inside the drum and we haven't been able to use it. The repairman came out last week after we'd already had one tense trip to the local laundromat, owned by an Asian lady with a big attitude. To our complete dismay, the repairman said he needed to order parts and wouldn't be back until the 25th, necessitating another trip to the laundromat!
On our last trip, the owner hassled us about using more dryers. She said we had to make sure we could see a "hole" in the clothes pile as they tumbled or we might set her place on fire. She had us stop our dryers, take out some of the clothes and put them into other dryers. I was embarrassed and ticked off but it's her place so we were stuck. Next time, I thought, I'll go somewhere else.
There are two other places in town, both located in not so great areas. One of them is pretty dingy. The other one seems bright on the inside and I thought to go check that place out. I should have. We went back to the first place because I figured the owner would be there to give us change. The banks were closed today because of the holidays.
We had a lot of wash accummulated and no one was there, not even the owner. We put the clothes into the super washers and I gave the girls all the change I had. I went to the 7-11 next door to get more change. Meanwhile, someone pulled up with 5 jumbo loads of laundry. When I got back, Heidi said I needed to give the owner $10 because she'd come out and had a fit when she saw two of the machines weren't going. I went back to look for her and she wasn't there. Another lady showed me how to "call" the owner.
The owner lives upstairs from the laundromat. This is how she's able to keep the place so clean and to keep such close tabs on it. Anyway, down she comes and I give her a $20 to get another roll of quarters. I tell her that she wasn't here and I'd gone next door for the quarters. "That's okay," she says. But don't put clothes in the washer without having the quarters to start the machines.
Yeah. Already my hackles are up.
The owner comes back to warn my girls that there is a minute left on the first two washers--like maybe they are idiots and can't read the time remaining for themselves. It didn't matter that the girls were watching the washers intently. So, in a very timely manner, they move the wash over to the dryers. Meanwhile, someone who's using one of the super washers left the load behind and the machine stopped. I pettishly pointed that out to the owner. It's not my kids who are being "inconsiderate".
Now, about the dryers--I told the girls they had to use 4 dryers--two for each machine. They rolled their eyes at me but I didn't want a repeat of the last time. There was going to be a hole you could drive through in those tumbling clothes!
The owner has a system of colored clothes pins that she puts on the dryer handles. "You green," she told me, clipping 6 pins to the dryer handles. I told her I needed 2 more. She looked at me and I said we still had more washers to empty. Okay, so we get 2 more. What that means is, if all the dryers have colored pins on them and you have a wash you need to dry you are SOL unless you were assigned a color. I learned that on my last trip, too. I'd washed my laundry at home and brought them to dry--and I had to wait. All the dryers had already been assigned. That's why this time I didn't use my perfectly good washer. :P
Well, now it's beginning to get a bit crowded and people are waiting to use the super washers. Now, why didn't they use the little washers? There's a couple dozen of those. I guess the reason is that if the owner sees you've got 3 loads of laundry or more, she wants you to use the super machines. I think she doesn't trust anyone to know how to divide their wash into smaller loads for the older machines. Yeesh. Last time, Kristin was going to split her bag between smaller machines but the owner stopped her. "No, no, no, you use big machine, you wait." So Kristin had to wait for one of the big machines to go free.
Some guy came in with a comforter. You're not allowed to wash comforters in anything but the big machine. Well, now, that makes sense because it can cause a smaller machine to jam. The owner's eyes got huge as she saw him coming and she groaned, "Oh God!" As he came in the door, she went to meet him. "No machines right now, no machines free, you come back, so sorry!"
And so the guy left.
Well, what are you going to do? It's her place, she has the right to run it the way she wants to. But I'm not going back there next time, no way, no how!
Posted by Cassie at January 16, 2006 02:36 PM | TrackBack