Friday afternoon I bundled up all my laundry, which was a pretty big pile and didn't quite fit in my aged laundry bag (purchased when I was first going off to college, back before the Battle of Manzikert), and drove out to find a laundromat. Actually, I had a vague idea of where one was, from the problem with the dryer last year or so, and my father helpfully pointed out one was located quite nearby on a road meeting the road where the laundromat I did find was. As I looked around uncertainly with a bundle of laundry and some detergent in my hands, the woman listlessly watching the front desk explained there were washers and dryers of different sizes, and I thanked her.
I would like to report a sequence of hilarious not-quite misunderstandings and confusion, but it didn't happen. The only real surprise I had is that laundromats today are a lot more expensive than dorm room laundry was a decade-plus ago. ($2.50 for the wash, $0.25 for five minutes of dryer time!) I had to use the change machines several times over, which allowed me to collect several State Quarters which I hadn't had before, mostly Denver mint issues, and my first Washington, DC, coin. Oddly, one washer wanted ten more minutes for its load than the other two.
When concerned that I might run out of quarters I stepped to the convenience store next door to break a twenty, and realized they must get a lot of break-a-twenty purchases. So for my purchase (a Diet Coke and a Nutter Butter pack) I paid exact change, using two of my three remaining quarters and getting back $18, which probably would have confused the cashier if he cared to think about it, which I realize, he probably didn't. I didn't get any new State Quarters I didn't have from the change I got from this, either, but you know, the time spent sitting in an uncomfortable metal chair while a Nor'Easter stormed outside was oddly tranquil. I doubt I'll do it again anytime soon, but it wasn't bad to do once.
Trivia: Jay Ward's pilot reel, completed 1948, for what would become the Crusader Rabbit series, included the cartoon ``Dudley Doright of the Mounties'', with Dudley chasing villain Sidney ``The Snake'' Snodgrass of Deepfreeze Landing to save heroine Bess Blushmore. Source: The Moose That Roared: The Story Of Jay Ward, Bill Scott, A Flying Squirrel, And A Talking Moose, Keith Scott.
Currently Reading: Solar Lottery, Philip K Dick.