Dryer Woes

So, I had a particularly stressful day at work yesterday when some bad news about bonuses and profit sharing came through to the little people...I got home and we decided to relax a bit and "Draper" it up. We poured some cocktails and sat in the living room to talk about our days and played with Brian's new toy - a remote control helicopter. It was quite pleasant. We made dinner and cleaned up and then went upstairs to do some laundry in preparation for our Nashville trip on Saturday.

I had a load in the dryer and Bri had a load in the washer. I went to start folding and discovered that all of my clothes were still wet. Well, that's funny becaue my clothes were still wet earlier in the day when I had already run the dryer once already. GREAT! Houston, we have a problem...

Brian was on the phone downstairs doing dishes which meant I needed to start tackling this on my own. If you don't know much, know that I can sometimes be messy. And when I say me, I definitely mean WE. It may be a serious problem. Anyways, one time a few years ago I was on a girls trip to Wisconsin when I got a flat tire...it wasn't the worst thing in the world but when you travel with an entire trunk and backseat loaded with crap and you have to empty it all out on the side of the road just to access your spare, you realize you make more work for yourself. Well, consider the laundry room last night to be like a stuffed trunk. I basically had to spend about a half hour just clearing out all of the laundry and stacks of folded clothes before even pulling the dryer out. I guess, blessing in disguise, those clothes are finally put away in their drawers...

By the time everything was clear, Brian was off the phone and digging in...except I was on the computer googling troubleshooting ideas. All Brian needed to troubleshoot with me was why his drink was empty! So, Bri continued to problem solve and I began pouring additional cocktails.

One disassembled dryer drum, a vacuumed lint trap and two cocktails later we still weren't getting anywhere. It was already 11pm...then my dad calls. Dad talks Brian through a few more ideas and hands the phone back to me. A few minutes later Brian was screaming that we had an emergency and I basically hung up on Dad and ran into the room where I swear I smelled something burning...nope, what I was smelling was actually natural gas leaking into the laundry room. STOP EVERYTHING! Brian thinks for a second and determines the problem (no, it was not time for another cocktail) and fixes it...still not sure what was wrong or if this was an attempt at an insurance claim...hmm, story checked out and there was no explosion.

Never fear, Brian had another idea...Lauren mixed cocktails and Brian dragged the air compressor upstairs where he proceeded to blow compressed, high pressure air into the lint trap in an attempt to clear out a possible clog...not sure if there was a clog but the entire room filled up with clouds of lint dust...he cleared something out, I guess!

In a final attempt to insure the dryer was running properly, Brian decided to go up into the attic where our vents lead and confirm that there was actual air flow. I used my pro cheerleading skills that I picked up from many viewings of Bring It On, Bring It On Again, Bring It On: In It to Win It...you get the drift...I hoisted Brian up into the hole in the ceiling! He gave it the all clear and even took a few pics so that I could see what it looked like up there and then I helped him back down. Please keep in mind that my husband is wearing an old t-shirt, underwear and crocs...which means that nearly his entire body has now been exposed to insulation and he is itching like crazy! I sent him straight to the shower where he huddled in a corner until the water warmed up...you are supposed to wait until the shower it steamy so it opens your pours and the tiny sharp material doesn't go further into your skin...well, what's a hard working naked man supposed to do in a cold shower while waiting for it to warm up? Babe, can you grab my drink?

Cocktail time!

After the shower and clean up, the dryer had been running for a while and MIRACLE!!! It was working! I finished my load, we folded and hung up and put all of the washing machine clothes in the dryer for the night...it was late and we were tired after all of that hard liquor...I mean work!

This morning I got ready for work and went to grab a shirt out of the dryer...but everything was still wet.