Ponder Post: Appliance Woes

Last night Frank and I returned from an eight day trip to Oklahoma City. A couple days before we left our washing machine broke. I walked into the laundry room to an acrid burning smell and a machine that had stopped dead, mid-cycle, full of water, of course. I tried to manually put it on other cycles to get it to limp along to a finish, at least a water drain, but to no avail. Then about an hour later the machine started up of its own accord and finished the cycle! Yay. No way was I going to chance adding another load. I called a repair service. This machine may be old but I do not want one of those new fangled low water usage machines. I know I sound like an old fuddy-duddy but when I wash the fabrics for my quilts I want the excess dye to be diluted and transferred out of the cloth, not filtered through it repeatedly.

A repairman from Aries Appliance was able to come out the day before we were to leave but a part had to be ordered and the machine could not be fixed until after our return. Good thing our trip was a visit to our daughter Robin and her family. Frank and I packed dirty clothes in our suitcases and washed them when we got to Oklahoma – a reverse from the norm, but hey, whatever works. An appliance repair visit was scheduled for the day after we returned – today! The disassembly was quite extensive.

Apparently the main gear housing was leaking oil, overheated, and triggered a shutdown.

Here is a closeup of the leaking culprit.

It is all together and, for a mere $587.37 service invoice, is working fine. Now, for joy, I get to catch up on all that laundry.

While we were visiting Oklahoma – and doing laundry –  Robin and Jeremy's refrigerator broke. Ironic, huh! We took a planned day trip to Wichita, Kansas and when we returned, Robin was home with a refrigerator repairman.

After the repairman left Robin began to discard untrusted food items and previously overlooked expired food items. She send me this photo and text.

I did not reply with images of the laundry piled on the bed or our overflowing laundry baskets. But I did have a reflective thought. Today, while I am doing laundry catchup, Robin is doing refrigerator purging. Like mother, like daughter – sort of...