That's Not The Way I would Have Done It Pt. 1

  Anyone in my family who has ever worked on a project with my father, and may have exercised an opinion on how said project should be done, will be very familiar with these words.  If your suggestion actually worked, or even as you were doing it with my fathers two bits thrown in, one final comment from him would almost always be, "That's Not The Way I Would Have Done It!"

 As part of growing up and becoming an adult, we had learned to not always allow dad to do all our projects for us.  But, being dad, he would always have to come over and "inspect" what we have done.  Just the way things always were.

  Enough history lesson.  I admit, I have lived in my apartment now for 48 yrs.  I know, I am showing my years.  It started when we moved in in June 1963.  As we first lived here, We had a roller type washing machine while had a roll away wringer attachment on it, to wring out all the water from clothes before they went outside to line dry.  Hey, that was top notch in its day.  Anyway, I digress.  In the intervening years, we have updated to modern washers and indoor clothes dryers.  And of course, Dad installed.  I admit, I was the youngest male child.  That meant that Michael was dad's helper through most all of the work around the house.  As he grew up, went to High School,and then to college, I started to become dad's understudy.  Just as it should be.  I became head gofer.  I know that is not the way to spell the rodents name, but I stand by my spelling because for us this meant Go for this, and go for that.  My point being, I was not the gofer for the basement work.

  Growing up, I admit, mom was the go to clothes washer and dryer person.  That was a chore dad avoided at all costs.  Excuses of color blindness, to not knowing what is colored clothes and which is not, to being bread winner, etc, you get the picture.  But, he did all the installations.  he put up the clothes pole in back yard to run clothes lines.  He could do that. 

 After mom passed away, I was still in dads foot prints. Aunt Mary took over doing laundry.  All we had to do was to get our dirty laundry to the basement a day early to "Soak."  Our family knows what I am talking about.  Our families pre-soaked overnight all our especially sweaty clothes.  Things were going as they always had.  A few years later, Aunt Mary now has been retired a few years, and the work load a little larger for her.  So, I took over doing our laundry.  Sorry, even though over the years, we ended up getting two washers and dryers in the basement, How convenient is that! I would not do my laundry at home.  I took my baskets to the laundramat.  I would pick up some lunch, and a book, and I would go an do our laundry.  Sometimes, I had someone to talk with, and sometimes, i just enjoyed the eye candy.  But, with multiple machines, I could do many loads at once.  For me that was the whole point.

  Aunt Mary would chastise me a bit got going elsewhere to do laundry when we have two sets of machines right here.  But, she is like dad in a way. Always wanting to lend a hand and eventually just takes over the chore in showing you how to use the equipment.  In my small rebellion, in wanting to be an ADULT, I refused and just went to the laundramat. 

  Skipping now to yesterday, Aunt Mary is in the hospital.  I was low on cash, so, I decided to do laundry at home, and no kibbitzing. Hey, these are just machines without coin slots, I think I can figure this out!  Anyway, reading the labels, just like at laundramats, I loaded soap in first, and according to the machines, you should start the filling process with water before adding clothes.  Was a step away from commercial machines.  Anyway, I complied.  Made my settings, hit go, and filled machines with clothes.  Nothing happened.

The above are photos of the two washers i had to deal with. Went over to second machine and did as directed, and once again, nothing happened.  Going back to first machine, only four dials, how could i not figure it out?  I heard a small buzzing sound, so I guessed maybe a solenoid was stuck.  I found the plug and unplugged and replugged it in.  Again, all I got was a buzz sound.  Doing troubleshooting in my head, I thought, Hmm, got a buzz, so must have electricity.  Looked and found that both machines were indeed plugged in.  Hmm, no water as yet, checked to see if hoses were connected. check!  Wait a minute, in tracing the hoses back I came to this set up.  I had never seen one of these before!

There is a paddle in between the hose connections.  And if you look closely, it actually says On and Off.  DING DING DING, Hold the phones people, we have a winnah!  I knew then what was wrong.  To allow water to flow, you need to set the paddle in between to ON.  As soon as I did that to each of the machines, water flowed!  Problem solved.

  I know, if I would have taken Aunt Mary's advice, and allowed her to show me years before, I would have known this, but some of dads stubborness is still in me.  Thinking about that set-up, I am aware that there is an electronic set up where you plug in your hoses to a water meter apparatus and if the apparatus senses that machines are not turned on and there  is water flow, it will automatically shut off water.  These are for units where people now have washers and dryers like on their main floor or second floor and not in traditional basements.  These prevent flooding and water damage to upper floors. Dad was a forward thinker.  His was not and electronic switch, and his arrangement was in the basement, but, he had installed ahead of its time, a water shut off. 

  There are times when I had wanted to B@%@%-slap dad, and yesterday was one of them.  I would have told him "That is not the way I would have done it, but, it is done, and I begrudgingly admit, it does work.  I just had to figure it out for myself.