Moving: A Laundry Rant

Moving: A Laundry Rant

I have a long history of trying different laundry methods - in Costa Rica, it varied from sending it out, to handwashing and hanging out everything. But generally, where ever I am, I eventually have a washer and dryer of my own.

Here in New Mexico, our apartment has hook-ups as well as laundry rooms. When we moved in, we weren't sure how long we would stay, so we immediately rented the appliances. Then we bought some, which we sold last week. Bottom line, I never once had to use the laundry room - until the hell that was today.

Knowing I would likely have to do some wash before leaving, I got some quarters, and found out where the room was. This morning, I carried the laundry and ancillary items over, and filled up three machines. That's when I noticed that these machines take a card! Huh, OK, I go back to my apartment, exchange my quarters for a credit card, and go back - every single machine gives me an error, no matter which way the card goes in! Well, I see one dryer going, so I know at least one machine has to be working; must be my card. I go back, and get all my credit cards - all errors!! Yep, I'm pretty steamed - I go to the office (and I'm *really* glad I didn't try all this yesterday, when the office was closed!). Then I find out that the dratted machines don't take credit cards, but rather a specialized *laundry* card, that you have to buy and fill at the machine in the office! And that machine doesn't take credit cards OR quarters! Grrr. Back to my apartment for cash - luckily we had one $5 and one $10 bill; the thing required a $5 bill (nothing else, only that) for the card - it then said I had a whole $3 of credit on it (yep, a $2 buy-in just to wash some clothes). Not having another $5 bill, I sacrificed my $10 bill to the maw and finally had enough (waaaay too much) credit on the card to do my wash. Back to the laundry room, where everything finally started...

It took a good half-hour, and plenty of swearing to calm down. But now we have enough clean clothes for our 3-day drive to California - where I am very tempted to get over this episode by splurging at Napa valley's French Laundry** - Hah! Now *that* would really try my patience!

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**
https://www.thomaskeller.com/tfl
https://www.timeout.com/usa/restaurants/toughest-restaurant-reservations-to-get-in-america