For as long as we've lived together (and before that) Gloria and I have had to leave home to do our laundry. At BU, I'd take my laundry to my brother's place or my sister's place. In Somerville, we'd walk about a block to what is now called the Showcase Laundramat. When we moved into our old apartment in Bethlehem, there was a washer in our apartment, but it wasn't hooked up. We hoped it would be put in the basement and turned on, but it was eventually removed and sent to who-knows-where. For as long as we've lived in Bethlehem, Gloria has taken the laundry to the Linden Tree Laundramat or to my parents' place.
Our house came with a pretty new-looking washer, but no dryer. It's been too cold to air-dry things, so we hadn't used the washer at all. With the baby's birth nearly upon us, we (read: I) have finally gotten in gear to get a dryer installed so we can do laundry at home. We decided to get a gas dryer, since it will cost less to operate over time -- assuming gas prices don't go up too much.
Last week we had Dave the Electrician install some outlets in the basement (and also a nice new front porch light), and today UGI was out to install a line for the gas. All we needed was the dryer.
We'd looked at a few at Lowe's, and were pretty much ready to go place an order, when someone on #perl suggested I look for a local appliance store. This reminded me that there has been a little appliance store nearby since I was a kid. (Actually, I learned, since 1920 or so.) It's called Lehigh Supply, and we headed over after dinner.
The guy who was working there was really helpful and friendly, and was happy to answer all our questions at a leisurely pace. I am sure that at Lowe's we would have gotten less help in a bigger rush. What's even better is that we're going to get the dryer up to two weeks faster and for about a hundred dollars less than it would have been at Lowe's. I just hope they can get the thing past the cistern.
Gloria suggested that we make sure that the washer, which we've never used, works. I plugged it back in and tried to run a cycle, and it just started making a weird hissing noise. My love for life started to fade away, and I switched it to a spin cycle. This worked: the motor hummed and the agitator spun around. I tried a normal cycle and a rinse cycle, but both just hissed. I stared into space, imagining going back to Lehigh Supply to drop another $500 on a washer, and then realized that I was staring at the shut-off valves leading to the washer. With those opened, we were back in business.
I realize that this is a boring entry, and nearly the worst sort of "today I ate a bowl of cereal," journaling but... well, I'm really, really excited about Gloria being able to do the laundry at home. Anyway, maybe someone will stumble across my extreme happiness with Lehigh Supply Appliance and be encouraged to go there.
