Why the appliance store owner is your friend
Apparently I’m just stupid enough to be happy. When a remark like that comes from your best friend, you have to believe. According to my friend, I should be much more stressed about the financial choices that are forced on us by time and mechanical failure, but after analysis, it’s much easier just to roll over and accept that I’m not a carrier of the “rich” gene.
Earlier this week we had to accept that our faithful clothes washer was pretty much at the end of its useful life. Anything more than a single shirt and the spin cycle became the “sit and whine” cycle. Not good, when the house is filled with three sons, an abundance of towels and a new hot water tank. The laundry pile seemed constant. The “local laundromat” is halfway across the city and the price of gas just hit $1.29 per litre. I don’t even have a river with rocks and rapids to get the grime out. When life provides lemons, make some meringue.
We called in our trusty repair man (he’s acquainted with most of the home appliances that we’ve owned by now) and his advice after some tests was to forget trying to patch this one any more. Time to get some new “stuff”.
A quick course on the merits of home laundry technology and then we were off to meet the sellers. The trained professionals, who live and drive by their commissions. Talk about sending a pair of helpless waifs into the lions’ den. I had great resolve in the car, but after that first cheery “Je peux vous aider?”, my resolve was gone. Sell me something. More. Price is no object. I love the smell of a new dryer.
We did visit more than one store. Two is comparative shopping, and we already knew everything we needed to know. Let’s see… it will cost money; they will take the old machines away; they can deliver in a day or two. Sold! We checked on the availability of a son to greet the delivery van, signed the contract, shook hands and smiled and headed home, content that the salesman knew exactly how to wring the last penny out of our intentions.
I don’t think I’ve been oversold. After all, we didn’t take the cherry red machines, and he did throw in the metal stand to place the washer and dryer up out of harm’s way. It will be more efficient (I laugh in the face of the electrical monopoly) and we’ll even have a sound effect to tell us that the new, quieter machines have finished their respective cycles.
Here are the new twins, due to arrive sometime on Saturday.
The excitement is palpable (year, right!). The reality is that we’ve been here long enough that we’re doomed to replace everything in the house.
