On Sunday morning, I was doing chores around the house when I noticed a sudden silence from the laundry room. Given that I had started a load of laundry not long ago, I figured something was wrong. When I checked the washer, it was supposed to be spinning but nothing was happening. I tried switching cycles and it ran through the wash cycle again but still wouldn't spin. Crud. Given the peaceful lazy Sunday I had planned, I was not at all happy with this turn of events. Thanks to the power of Google, I was able to find out what was the most likely cause of the problem: a broken lid switch. Five minutes and a few loose screws later, I confirmed that the lid switch had broken away from the washer, due to the flimsy plastic casing and one-too-many times of slamming down the washer lid. (Note to self: the future, gently lower the washing machine lid rather than letting it slam down.)in
It took a little searching online and a quick trip to Lowe's to come to the frustrating realization that washer parts are not available on a Sunday, which seems rather odd given that weekends are when people are most likely to do laundry. Rather than letting my clothes ferment in the brackish stew, I pulled them out in clumps and left them in the sink to soak in clean water. It could easily have been worse--the clothes that were in the washer were all my work-out clothes rather than my nice work clothes.
Dredging my shirts out of the opaque water, I was reminded of the old-school (but brand-new) washer we had in Kumasi, where the wash cycle and the spin cycle were done in separate bins, requiring me to transfer soaking wet clothes from dirt-laden water into the spin basket. Somehow I found it much more annoying to deal with that clothing transfer here. I'm a bit annoyed with myself for falling prey to the expectation that living in the US means that I should only have to deal with developed-world issues, like the cable going out or poor service in a restaurant, rather than less-developed-world situations, like hand-transfers of laundry.
On Monday morning I was able to buy the part at the Sears repair shop--once it opened at 10 am, that is. Since it's located at Northgate, it operates on mall hours even though it's a free-standing building. Once I got the part home, I was able to follow a really awesome YouTube video by Repair Clinic on how to replace the lid switch. After reassembling the washer, I must admit that I did the "Yeah, I got mad skillz" dance to celebrate my victory over the washing machine. Amazing how much of a sense of accomplishment I can get from completing a small home repair. I celebrated my victory by washing the clothes that had been soaking for two days. I guess they'll be really clean now.
