Friday, June 17, 2005

Now that the dryer is fixed...

... I should really stay home and do laundry all day. I have tons of laundry to do. The towels, the sheets, Grady's blankets, stuff from Kirk's travels, not to mention all of my clothes from the past couple weeks... It's starting to take over our bedroom so I should probably move it to the laundry room. But it is another beautiful way, so there's no way I can be inside today. I plan to spend another afternoon at the pool after my pilates class this morning.

Anyway, the dryer repairman came by yesterday morning and replaced a part that he described as "the brain" of the dryer. He spoke very good English and those were his exact words. No wonder it didn't work anymore. Now it seems to be working better than ever! My first load this morning dried more quickly than ever before. While he was here, I took the opportunity to get a couple tips from him about how to ensure I'm using the machines appropriately. I showed him the settings I use on the washer and said that it is a 44 minute cycle. "Is that the shortest time for a cycle?" I asked. He responded "Yes, of course. The usual cycle is more like an hour and a half." I continued to explain how difficult it is to adjust to these machines after using our huge machines in the US that run in about 20 minutes. As expected, his response was "That's true, but I don't like those machines. They just go 'swish, swish' (and he made some hand motions to demonstrate a giant American machine's washing process). These machines are much more enery efficient". I stopped there. I didn't need to tell him how I don't care that they're energy efficient because I don't want to spend my entire 2 years in Basel doing laundry. Seriously, sometimes I feel like I'm in a constant state of washing and drying clothes. The machines are SO small and take SO long, and I often dream of the jumbo sized washing machine we bought in Arlington just months before we moved that our tenants are now enjoying. Then again, I really don't feel I can complain. At least we have our very own washer and dryer in our basement and we don't have any rules about when we can use them. We can use them at night, we can use them on the weekend, and we don't need to sign up for laundry day. Isn't that the way it is in most Swiss apartment buildings?