Friday, August 14, 2009

Eddie Hauls Laundry The White Trash Way Friday

Here you will see Eddie with our cart full of laundry at a very brightly lit 24-hour laundromat in Corpus Christi, Texas. Because we couldn't fit the truck in the small laundromat parking lot, we had to park across the street at the Lowe's. And because we had two huge, military seabag sized laundry bags full of laundry to do, Ed hauled it all across the street in one of their shopping carts.

You can imagine how "Queen of White Trash" I felt while I held the door open for him as he wheeled the cart in. The place was a bazillion degrees, so I was not looking forward to doing all that laundry, but since I was wearing the last decent outfit I had, there was no choice.

I loaded five machines and got everything started so I could read my book. Twenty minutes later, the washing machines cycled off. Well, except for one. The digital display said "11", indicating it had eleven minutes left to the cycle. I wondered why that one hadn't finished since they all went in at the same time, but I figure I must have miscalculated and started to put the clothes from the other machines into the dryers. After I unloaded the four machines, I went back to get the other clothes.

The machine was still stuck on 11 and I watched as the water poured in, cycled once to the right, paused, then cycled back to the left. I jiggled the handle, pressed all the buttons, and kicked it, but it didn't move. It just kept rinsing and spinning.

There was an emergency number on the wall to call, but it didn't have the area code listed, so I asked someone in the laundromat. He gave me a number, but it had too many digits. I gave him a puzzled look and then he corrected himself, saying "Oops. That's the zip code. The area code is 613". So I pounched in the number and left a message for "Matt", the guy whose voicemail I got. "Hi. I'm sitting at your laundromat on Williams in Corpus and my clothes are stuck in one of your machines. The rinse cycle has been on for forty minutes now and the digital display hasn't moved. I can't stop it and I can't get the door open. Please call me back at xxx.xxx.xxxx. Thank you."

I waited and waited but never got a call back. I texted Ed, who was in the truck, to come back over because he had to help me get my clothes out of the machine. I had a feeling the guy gave me the wrong area code, and since I hadn't gotten a call back yet, I asked Ed to give me the correct one. He texted back, "361". Great. So the first time, I called some guy to tell him I was sitting in his laundromat watching my trapped clothes spin around in the washing machine. Which okay, is a mistake, but geez, you'd think the guy would at least have called me back to tell me I had the wrong number. Especially since I told him I was sitting there waiting for his call.

I then dialed the correct number and got an answering service who took my information and told me the owner would be over to help me out. So I sat and waited. The guy finally showed up and cut the power to the machine, resetting it so it would go back on and finish the cycle. At this point, my clothes had been rinsing for over an hour. In all of my life, I've never had my clothes get trapped in a washing machine. Guess I can't say that anymore.

As we were folding the clothes and finishing up, Ed and I laughed about the message I left for "Matt" about me sitting in his laundromat, watching my spinning clothes that were being held hostage by his machine. It was very late when we did our laundry, so undoubtebly I woke someone up; I'm sure he was looking at his phone thinking, who the hell is calling me at this hour? I almost called him back when he hadn't responded but you know when you get that feeling that someone gave you the wrong information, so you double check it? Glad I did. I could have left two stupid messages.

Only later when I was able to get on the computer to look it up, did I find out that the area code I called belonged to someone in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Looks like that makes my little blunder international. Pretty funny, eh?


~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
1 YEAR AGO:
Sun Setting Over Lake Pontchartrain
2 YEARS AGO:
Sanchez. Pedro Sanchez.
3 YEARS AGO:
Remembering Those In Heaven
4 YEARS AGO:
The Line Of Gold Thread

3 comments:

Gil said...

To be real "White Trash" you have to leave the cart in a different location than where you found it. The further away from where you found it the better, like take it a few blocks away.

all things bradbury said...

and maybe leave a coke bottle with some tobacco juice inside in it.....

Angela said...

Great story... thanks for the laugh!

My word verification is too funny... DERTE. hahaha