When it rains....

• Latest appliance to break; my dryer.  It broke on Monday while Madison was drying her excessive load of laundry.  She never noticed that the load wasn't drying, despite going through five cycles.  Darcy washes a load and the next morning hubby takes out Maddy's laundry, puts in Darcy's laundry, heads off to work and never notices the dryer isn't hot.  I come along and run a load.  When the time comes to move it to the dryer I notice Darcy's wet clothes and the fact that the dryer is cool as can be.  Then I feel Madison's load on top of the dryer.  Wet.  The dryer is broken.  I haul and do six complete loads at the laundromat in one hour.  Something to be said for getting it all done in one fell swoop.  At one point the laundress comes over to me and asks me to keep an eye on the place while she steps out for twenty minutes.  She does not ask the man in the laundromat.  I did not receive any free loads for doing this for her.

• Maddy comes in my room late last night after I had fallen asleep and wakes me to inform me that picture day is in the morning and that I have to fill out a form.  I tell her I'll get it in the morning and then I make sure to drag my butt out of bed earlier to do so.  It is pitch black at 5:30 in the morning here and I despise lights so I dim them very low.  I didn't have my reading glasses and could not see the form clearly, but the package I needed was $39 and I was annoyed that school pictures would cost so much.  I know I didn't pay that last year and so I turn up the light and discover that same package, minus a calendar, at $27.  I sigh, write the check, and then fill out the form.  What happened to the good old days where you took your picture in front of a crappy background with clouds or a flag?  I had to pick a pose, pick a background, and decide if I wanted to have touch-ups done to her blemishes.  Seriously?  I went to see what she was wearing so that I could pick the background.  She was in a darker green shirt with some type of birds all over it.  I decide blue, but when I got to mark it there is a parenthesis that says deduct $4 from total if ordering blue.  WTH?  I sort of lose it at this point so Madison picks a pink background to go with some pink spot inside these birds all over her shirt.  I remember that all school pictures are suppose to look cheesy ten years down the road and feel she deserves that pink background.

• I relax a bit in bed after the photo episode before getting Darcy up and at 'em.  We get in the car to head off to school and a strange noise emits from my engine.  It gets louder as I drive, then disappears, and then reappears by the time I pull into the school parking lot.  I ask the teacher what that noise is, as if I didn't know it was coming from my own car, but turns out it was only audible inside the car.  I drive back home.  I know that this sound is something I've had before, but with the car just shutting off at various times during the day, I'm sure that this is not something to ignore.  My friend arrives with breakfast (she was planning to lounge by the pool while I was off teaching swimming) and I make her get in the car so that I know I'm not crazy.  (See previous story regarding van)  The noise is now audible inside and out so we drive to the auto repair shop where the men do not run when I pull in.  A plus I thought.  I give a great description on noise using sound effects that earn me looks and drive home with my friend (who diagnosis the problem as a belt).  We arrive home, have some coffee, and the rain comes.  I call my lesson people, but they assure me it is sunny.  I leave friend sitting on couch annoyed that it is raining and drive off in her van to my lesson.  It pours and pours as I drive.  The main road is flooded in areas because of how hard and how fast it is raining.  I'm wondering if lesson people have a screw loose, but as I get twenty minutes down the road clear skies.  Twenty minutes into the lesson the rain hits, gentle at first and then an onslaught.  The little boy and I get wet (ha, ha, a swimming joke).  I slosh out to my borrowed van and drive off in the rain.  Ten minutes down the road the rain is gone and the sun is brightly shining.  I get some lunch for us gals and head home.  By the time I pull into my driveway the rain is back and friend is still annoyed.  I contemplate taking off in her van forever and leaving her behind with my dog, but decide that I would miss her too much.  The sun finally came out for an hour, friend got into pool, I got to drive her van again to collect my eldest, and my van got fixed.

• I looked on the Internet for repairing a dryer and decide the problem is the thermostat.  Hubby takes apart the dryer and takes in a huge piece that includes the thermostat.  He arrives home for lunch after I arrive back from my lesson.  He has my fixed van, but has traded it for his car at the service station and must now leave me again without transportation.  On the up note he had dryer part.  I mention that my friend and I will put it all together with the help of the Internet and instructions.  He says, "Please don't."  I huff and puff and tell my friend that my father taught me how to repair things and I'm sure that we can do it.  I tell her that I will read the directions and she will follow my instructions.  She says she will call her hubby and have him come over and do it and then we will sit smugly on the couch when my hubby returns.  We decide to do neither as the sun comes out.  Hubby is out in the garage at 9:30 repairing the dryer.  Tomorrow can only be brighter, right?