Super Dry
This morning, Saturday, I woke up at 6:00. In some ways I think this is good -- I'm establishing new habits for myself, one of which is getting up early and going for a run. Nothing serious, just 3K and then a bit of a yoga stretch. In some ways, it really sucks... I'm a sleeper-inner by nature and preference.
So, yesterday my new washer and dryer were delivered and I did my very first load of laundry. Skipping to the punchline, my formerly white clothes are now all grey.
Belgian washer/dryers are different than Canadian models. And when I say 'different', I mean 'unbelievably frustrating'. There are the obvious language difference -- all the settings are in Dutch and French, so you have to be careful not to put detergent in the fabric softener, uh, thing. But the biggest difference is that, once you put your clothes in the machine, you give up control of your laundry to the machine. An example: The door locks. The pamphlet, that I was frantically reading to figure out how to get the door open 30 seconds after pressing 'start', helpfully explained that this is is for my safety. My new washer has a glass door (which is great because I don't have tv) so after loading in all my white clothes and selecting 90degree water (remember kids, water boils at 100degrees) I was able to see that my new black underwear (or what is now my new grey underwear) had gotten mixed in with my whites. For the next 2 hours -- because that is how long laundry takes in this country -- I watched helplessly as my underwear frolicked in the surf with my towels, socks and office blouses.
And even once the cycle is finished, the machine is hesitant to relinquish control. The door has a safety feature and will not open for a few minutes after your load is done. Pulling on the handle repeatedly will not help, yelling at the machine doesn't help, and neither does pleading. Because the washing machine knows what is best. And it wants you to be safe.
And it's not just the washers. Belgian dryers are also control freaks. You have an option of selecting 'super dry', 'dry', or 'not really dry' (not really sure why/when I might be tempted to select this, but ok)... there is no option for just starting the dryer for some period of time and stopping it whenever you feel like. Instead, the dryer decides how long your clothes get to dry for. The dryer will stop when it has determined that your clothes are dry enough. And if you do not agree, the dryer, which is smarter than you, cannot be tricked into offering up additional dryness. It simply refuses to dry things more than it feels it should. This is probably also for my safety. My French isn't that good, so I may have to reread the manual more slowly to figure out wtf this is about.
But for now, I'm going to take my jogging pants -- the ones with the formerly-white reflective strip that is now new-panty grey -- and hope that cars can still see me. You might want to put that in your safety manual, Electrolux!
This morning, Saturday, I woke up at 6:00. In some ways I think this is good -- I'm establishing new habits for myself, one of which is getting up early and going for a run. Nothing serious, just 3K and then a bit of a yoga stretch. In some ways, it really sucks... I'm a sleeper-inner by nature and preference.
So, yesterday my new washer and dryer were delivered and I did my very first load of laundry. Skipping to the punchline, my formerly white clothes are now all grey.
Belgian washer/dryers are different than Canadian models. And when I say 'different', I mean 'unbelievably frustrating'. There are the obvious language difference -- all the settings are in Dutch and French, so you have to be careful not to put detergent in the fabric softener, uh, thing. But the biggest difference is that, once you put your clothes in the machine, you give up control of your laundry to the machine. An example: The door locks. The pamphlet, that I was frantically reading to figure out how to get the door open 30 seconds after pressing 'start', helpfully explained that this is is for my safety. My new washer has a glass door (which is great because I don't have tv) so after loading in all my white clothes and selecting 90degree water (remember kids, water boils at 100degrees) I was able to see that my new black underwear (or what is now my new grey underwear) had gotten mixed in with my whites. For the next 2 hours -- because that is how long laundry takes in this country -- I watched helplessly as my underwear frolicked in the surf with my towels, socks and office blouses.
And even once the cycle is finished, the machine is hesitant to relinquish control. The door has a safety feature and will not open for a few minutes after your load is done. Pulling on the handle repeatedly will not help, yelling at the machine doesn't help, and neither does pleading. Because the washing machine knows what is best. And it wants you to be safe.
And it's not just the washers. Belgian dryers are also control freaks. You have an option of selecting 'super dry', 'dry', or 'not really dry' (not really sure why/when I might be tempted to select this, but ok)... there is no option for just starting the dryer for some period of time and stopping it whenever you feel like. Instead, the dryer decides how long your clothes get to dry for. The dryer will stop when it has determined that your clothes are dry enough. And if you do not agree, the dryer, which is smarter than you, cannot be tricked into offering up additional dryness. It simply refuses to dry things more than it feels it should. This is probably also for my safety. My French isn't that good, so I may have to reread the manual more slowly to figure out wtf this is about.
But for now, I'm going to take my jogging pants -- the ones with the formerly-white reflective strip that is now new-panty grey -- and hope that cars can still see me. You might want to put that in your safety manual, Electrolux!
posted by Penless Artist at 7:05 a.m.
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