That's Twisted!

I'm doing some laundry this morning (wait...that's not the twisted part) and I've changed the sheets on the bed so they went into the washer. It wasn't quite a full load, so I added some of my pajama pants.

You should know that my pajama pants are my regular pants unless I leave the house. At that point, I put on real pants; but only until I get back home again. I change my pajama pants every day so I go through lots of pants.

Anyway, I threw everything in the washer and went to remake the bed. Just as I finished up the bed, I saw a stray pillowcase on the floor. Lovely. So I went to add it to the load, thinking I'd probably have to turn it back a little to have it agitate a little longer.

When I opened the washer, I saw that one of the pajama legs had partially slipped over the top of the agitator and got stuck. I released it, but didn't see any laundry moving in the tub. The water looked yucky enough that I drained it to start over. When the water was finally out, I found a huge twisted mess of sheets and pant legs. The errant pair of pajamas had grabbed the sheets and while the agitator turned, everything got tangled up. I didn't even know this could happen in the washer! If the sheets hadn't been in there, it might not have.

Untangling the mess was not easy as everything was wet and heavy and essentially braided together. I then longed for the day I would be able to upgrade to an agitator-free washer. *sigh* This washer is old. And it STINKS! (I mean odor, not the slang.) I'm afraid that it will die too soon and we won't be able to replace it with the good stuff. Then we'll have to wait even longer to get a nicer machine.

I guess I should just be grateful that I have a washer and the only thing I have to do is put the clothes in, then take them out. And in the winter, I don't have to freeze to death hanging out clothes. When do they create a machine that folds it, too? (No wonder we're all fat and weak...we have too many conveniences.)

Incidentally, I heard a disturbing bit of info the other day about washing clothes and septic tanks. Apparently, doing all of the wash on one day is bad for your septic tank because all that water stirs up the sludge at the bottom of the tank and floats it up and out into your drain fields. That's when things get stinky and expensive. Too bad so many of us are on time-of-day meters and try to do the wash when the expense is cut to a third. So now I try to do a little each day, preferably at night so the dryer can run on cheaper power. Those of you on city sewer can be grateful for some things!