Laundromats are under rated.
I'm still waiting for our washing machine to be repaired - a part is on order which apparently must be hand crafted by a Hindi sect atop a mountain somewhere, because I've been waiting for 5 days. It's no big deal...I've got this patience thing down to an art now.
In any case, I decided today that it was time to forego my now common practice of hurdling the massive pile of my dirty clothes in our bedroom - although that is truly my only consistent daily exercise regime - and haul all the laundry to a laundromat. I might have been able to hold out another day but the pile had grown so large I was fearful of a laundry related injury which might have made for good blog fodder, but would have been embarrassing to explain in the emergency room.
"Well Doc, I cleared the whites with grace, but the heap of colors was my downfall"
I must admit it's been years since I've been in a laundromat. A lot has changed. Now there are giant washers, super washers, and even mega washers which I believe you can either use for washing clothes, or rent out as a weekend retreat.
They actually encourage you to shove everything you can inside these gargantuan machines as long as you restrict yourself to inanimate objects.
The real bonus is these genetically altered Maytags wash the clothes in 18 minutes. Being a middle of the road kind of guy, I opted to use two super washers whose exact capacity is roughly equivalent to what you can fit into a fleet of Yugos. The dryers are huge too. They easily hold 3 loads of clothes and unlike the dryers of old which I recall being more akin to coin operated car washes where they were timed to stop about a minute too soon requiring you to feed them more coinage, these actually worked. 75 cents for 30 minutes and all the clothes were dry.
There was even entertainment. There were several small children, including one young boy taking great delight in opening all of the floor level dryer doors.
There was a young Jehovah's Witness who offered me reading material, but objected to me trying to snap his picture. There was a woman washing what appeared to be the carpet from a hotel ballroom...those mega machines really do hold a lot.
I had prepared myself for an arduous afternoon combatting boredom and competing for dryers...instead I was in and out with seven loads of clean clothes in less than an hour at a cost of about 6 bucks.
Heck...that's cheaper than a movie, and actually it was probably more fun.
