nothing is forever

I was across the courtyard, in the other building’s basement doing laundry this afternoon, when I met an older woman I hadn’t come across in my time here. She seems quite nice and we were both commiserating about the rain and how doing laundry on a day like this can be a wee depressing. I told her that I had taken the car for the full wash ‘do earlier in the day so I already had that cheated feeling hanging over my head. She was finishing up her small load of laundry and hoping to have everything dry in time to pack for her trip to Argentina this evening. She told me about forgetting to pack underwear on one trip to China, she relayed the frustration of packing for Argentina in June – you just can’t tell what the southern hemisphere winters will bring, and she was stunned that the dryer she was trying to use seemed inoperable. Not just any dryer mind you, the Forever Dryer. You see, our laundry room has four full-sized, front-loading, Kenmore dryers: $.75 for one cycle which is generally enough to get everything soft and dry. One of the four dryers is fondly referred to as the Forever Dryer because your $.75 will run that baby all night long…trust me, all night long. Everyone uses it for the large load of towels, the blanket, maybe the occasional over-sized load (as if mother's would allow us to over pack a dryer.) As she rammed the quarters home and hit the start button, there was the eerie silence of a dead dryer. NOOOO…. Not the end of the Forever Dryer. I didn’t know what to think; maybe The Man finally figured out that it wasn’t producing the same amount of money as the other three siblings; maybe the fates decided to intervene and finally stop the good karma; maybe crazy old O’Malley gave it a good kick. In that minute or so we stared blankly at the unlit ‘run’ lamp I didn’t know how we’d all survive. What to do when we need to dry the spring-weight quilt? She finally decided that she’d need to go get another three quarters (it had taken her last three), come back, and switch dryers. Just as she was about to turn on her heel and walk away, she gave the door one more push in disgust and realized the unfastened door was the problem. Push. Click. RUUMMMBBBLLLEE….Run.

Some things do last forever.

Peace.

T.

P.S. I was at the store today and grabbed two cans of french cut green beans, a can of cream of mushroom soup, and...nothing. I couldn't find the Durkee's French Onions in the red-and-white cardboard 'can' to save my life. Where would any stocker possibly stock them? Are they used for anything other than green bean casserole? Anything? They should either be with the green beans or with the cream of mushroom soup. People....