Back in May, I was putting in a load of dirty clothes to run while I was out of the house. Re-potty training Julia is still a work in progress. We are still tweaking all her bowel meds to find just the right levels for success. That said, poopy underwear have got to be one of my least favorite "mommy chores". That and being majorly thrown up on are about the only thing that make my stomach turn. (I've actually had a kid vomit into my face once. I'll leave it at that and spare you the intricate details. Let me just add we were deplaning our flight at the time.)
Back to the washer, we had several pairs of poopy underwear in the washer already. It had not been a good start to the week. I planned to dry the clothes when I came home, before bed, so Carter could have his baseball uniform the next day. When I went to switch the load, the door was still locked. Strange. I tried to turn it off? Nothing. Reset? Nothing. Unplug? Nothing. Now I just want my clothes back and the washer is holding them hostage! I have to say part of me empathizes with the washer. After all the nastiness it sees, I might go on strike myself :)
Billy found a solution on the internet and took of the bottom panel to press the emergency door release button. Whew. Now I have a load of wet, smelly, dirty clothes. We tried to run the washer with no luck. But at least I have the nasty clothes. Just need to find somewhere to wash them in the morning.
In a lovely twist of fate, Julia wakes up crying at 5am. Not at all a good sign. I go upstairs to find her drenched in puke. The poor child has the stomach bug for the THIRD time in 6 weeks! I clean her up and hold her till she comes down. She proceeds to puke on both of us. We get cleaned up and I take her downstairs with me where she throws up in our bed, too. Really?! With no washer?!! The ick factor has now grown exponentially. This happened to be the same morning we found out that our little friend Vinny's cancer had relapsed and he was in extreme pain and being referred to hospice.
As a mom, I cannot just crawl in a hole to cry out to God, life must go on. I called our sweet neighbor and asked if we could use her washer. The contaminated laundry was about to overtake us. She immediately said yes. I arrived at her door with baskets of soiled clothes, towels, and bedding; wearing pajamas covered in barf, unshowered, and crying because my heart was breaking for Vinny and his family. But feeling so blessed because God put such sweet neighbors in our lives.
As I went back home to attempt to clean us all up I had to stop for a moment of humility because as stressful as all of this is, I remember daily how privileged I am to live in this country. When my children are sick, I fill a clean bath and wash them, offer them a drink of clean water, given them the medicine they need, dress them in clean clothes, and love on them. In the majority of homes in the world clean water is not available, baths do not clean, washers do not exist, soap is a luxury, and floors are made of dirt. We are so abundantly privileged. I say often how much I love my dishwasher and my washing machine and I truly do, even when they aren't working.
So the next day we called in the repair service. I had to laugh because as soon as he arrived, Carter grabbed his Handy Manny tools and hard hat and was ready to help. After a long series of calls to Whirlpool, diagnostic tests, and disassembly- it was determined that our door locking problem was actually a computer problem. The new part would be $300. As the repairman called me in to deliver the news, Julia decided to relieve herself (in both ways) on the couch because she was absorbed in the book she was reading. My patience was wearing very thin and we still had no washer. The man said we had to decide if we wanted to fix it or buy a new one.
Anyway thanks to our laundry fairy friends we were able to wash our clothes at others' homes. They even delivered it to us sometimes. Talk about a blessing!
The new part arrived after the holiday and a new repairman, Phil, came to install it. Turns out the computer in question was not at fault. There are multiple computers in these machines and they go down like dominoes. The guy was amazing in his efforts to diagnose and fix our problem. His passion on the phone with Whirlpool, advocating on our behalf was impressive. He ended up getting them to comp us the next computer. Each one is $300 until you eventually find the end of the line, but it would be another week until it came in.
Phil came back again with the new part and determination to fix this for us. I am elated to say it worked. And Phil did not charge us for the multiple visits. He was so honest and had such integrity that after profusely thanking him, I decided to pick his brain about washers. We adore our HE machines, but obviously have had some issues. He said that is true of all of them. They are computerized. It is the equivalent of exposing your laptop to heat, cold, water, dirt, soap, and agitation. Things can and will go wrong. He said they have yet to see a brand that consistently lasts into the double digit years of use without repairs. That said, he recommends Whirlpool because they have the best diagnostics, customer service, and ability to fix broken parts. So whatever it's worth, I hope that's helpful.
I still love our washer and did 6 loads that first night and we haven't slowed down much with swimming, potty training, and the many messes of summer. If it's possible I'm even more thankful for that crazy machine of ours. Three weeks without it definitely made my heart grow fonder! When I discovered at bedtime tonight that Julia had peed through everything last night and didn't tell me, I was able to smile (after sighing loudly) because I could throw it all in and wash it clean. Well, it just beeped, time to switch the sheets :)
