Thursday, December 13, 2007

Well that was unnecessarily stressful

Scroll down if you're looking for Thursday Thirteen. I just had a domestic crisis that I have to get out of my system right now.

I'm writing this at 1:30 in the morning. Why am I still up you ask? I'll tell you...

About 45 minutes ago I was about to head up to bed when I realized the laundry I had in the dryer should be done. I do occasionally leave it sitting in there, but this had a bunch of Jay's stuff in it and I knew he'd get cranky if I did (I suppose I have to thank him now) so off I went.

To my surprise, the dryer was still going. In fact, it was still early in the cycle. I opened the door and found that a few things were really hot while others were wet. After poking around a bit and opening and shutting the door a few times (as if that could possibly do something, yes, I am an idiot) I realized that it wasn't spinning. I closed the door again and turned the dryer back on. Still no spinning. Well crap, the dryer seems to be broken.

I started pulling out the clothes when I realized that my yellow tank top was now two-tone - black and yellow! Damned if the thing hadn't burned in there! It was boiling hot and had pretty serious scorch marks, some even going just about all the way through. Another few minutes and I'm sure the whole thing would have gone up in flames.

And let me tell you, I would have been seriously pissed off if I'd set fire to all of my underwear! (The go*glebots are going to have a field day with that one, aren't they?)

So I just spent the last half an hour hanging each individual item on the drying rack, remembering just why I don't do that for loads with 4 billion small items in them, and that's why I'm still awake at 1:39am (because of course I couldn't just go to bed, I had to race here and tell all of you first. Nevermind that I have to get up and get both kids out at the crack of dawn tomorrow.). And to top it all off the flippin' dryer is obviously kaput and I'll need to track down a repairman tomorrow. On the whole though, I think I dodged a pretty good bullet there. I shudder to think at what could have happened. Yikes...

27 comments:

Susan Helene Gottfried said...

Yowch. Someone was definitely looking out for you.

Sleep well, if you can after all that excitement.

Nancy said...

Thank goodness you caught it. I go to bed with the dryer on all the time. I'm going to think twice about it now. I hope it can be repaired and not have to be replaced.

Jenny McB said...

Good call on going back to check on it, close one.

Head Gaggler said...

Oh no! I am sorry about your dryer and you tank top. I hope it doesn't cost much to fix.

Anonymous said...

Well, poo! That's scary. Glad you went there in the nick of time...I guess someone is looking after you :)

Linda
http://www.ravensroads.com

Not Afraid to Use It said...

I came across your blog via TH13. I just wanted to say how much I loved the layout, your header photo, everything!!

that being said, I am so glad you caught the dryer issue before there was a true accident. I just went through a near-miss with my dryer as well. We didn't get the burned up clothes, but it was enough to scare the crap out of me.

Robin said...

Thank you, I'm glad you stumbled in too.

Now I need to track down a repair guy this morning. Ugh.

Anonymous said...

Someone is definitely watching out for you my lovely.

Methinks it is time to go shopping for a new tank top. :)

And I would have done the exact same thing. Fixed the crisis and then jump straight on the computer to share!

Hope you managed to clean up the cottage cheese chucks... let me know next time you have a hankering for it and I will write something on my blog to cause the same reaction..... but I need pics to go with it OK? *snort* Oh hang on, you are the queen of snorts aren't you? ;)

Kelley

http://magnetoboldtoo.wordpress.com

deedee said...

I DETEST hanging underwear and socks on my drying rack. And my husband is convinced that my using the drying has shrunk all of those items.
"No, no honey you've just gained weight"...I try to convince him.

Coco said...

Wow. That's just awesome that you suddenly remembered it! Hope you get it fix and have a good night sleep :)

Wylie Kinson said...

EEK - something like this happened to me once... except it wasn't the spinner, it was the timer - it just didn't shut off! I put it on before bed and when I awoke, it was still going (luckily, I'm not an 8 hour gal... just 5) but in 5 hours, most of my clothes were scorched and had to be trashed.

Zenmomma said...

Yikes is right! Glad you got there in time.

Anonymous said...

If the motor is running and its still getting hot but its not turning, You've broken a belt. Its super easy and cheap to replace. If its an electric dryer and you are even a little handy you can do it yourself. We just had to do that on our dryer a couple of months ago.

Meanwhile, Glad you went to check on it!

Believer in Balance said...

Wow. That is scary. They say never leave a dryer on when you leave the house. Now we have to add when we go to bed!

pussreboots said...

Oh dear. We had that happen about 2 years ago and right at night just like you.

Jen said...

Yeah, your guardian angel was working overtime this morning. I'm so glad you're ok. Sorry you have to get the dryer fixed (and oh, ain't THAT fun!), but wow, I'm glad you're ok.

J. Lynne said...

I had that happen to me and it turned out that the connection between the power cord and the dryer had melted. They replaced the connection and the power cord and now it works fine. They said it happens all the time.

Unknown said...

Dodged a bullet, indeed! Whew!

Fairly Odd Mother said...

I'd like to think you have a little angel over your shoulder that told you to go check that load of laundry when you did. Too scary. So glad you are ok.

Robin said...

It's a whole day later now. The dryer has been fixed - it was just a broken belt, the guy fixed it in about 20 minutes (for a ridiculous amount of money).

Anyway, it's fine now but I'm still freaked out at all the what-ifs...

Unknown said...

Good thing you went to check and caught it. Marissa does her laundry at night, so I check it before I go to bed. What a scare it must have gave you. I hope you can get a repairman out there soon.

Christine@ AreWeThereYetMom

Scribbit said...

I caught my machine smoking one time and was so relieved I hadn't left the house with it going.

Hope you got some sleep.

Janet said...

"what ifs" are scary things; I'm glad you're ok!

Gill said...

OMG I am soooo glad you caught that! See, it pays to listen to intuition.
Good for you to check on that one.
I hope you got enough sleep after all was said and done. So a bra was sacrificed, I am glad that was all.
xo
Gillian

Nicholas said...

I don't think you're the only one who would open and shut the door a few times. Some people might even give it a good thump too! I hope it can be repaired -- for less than the cost of a new one.

Lea said...

I am so glad you found this out and that there were no firemen and no underwear no more at 2:00 am in the morning....

Fourier Analyst said...

Funny thin, my dryer did the same thing at about the same time that month...Hmmmm. DH took it apart, couldn't find anything wrong, put it back together and it ran fine. So I'm asking myself, did the magnetic poles switch place for a moment?. Did the Earth stop spinning? Or gravity increase? Strange....