Out with the old, in with the new… technology

After 20 years of tireless service, the stackable washer/dryer system my husband and I have relied on so heavily finally went kaput. It graciously allowed me to wash one final load of my own clothes (i.e., not sheets or towels) before beginning to leak on the floor during the final rinse and spin, leaving a puddle of water that might as well have been blood; that’s how sad I felt. I snapped into crisis mode: there’d be a funeral, of course; and as we grieved and sought a replacement for our old faithful workhorse, an unsightly accumulation of dirty towels, sheets and clothes. The space where the unit sat is small: nothing wider than 24 inches fits through the bifold doors. This limited the search for a replacement to a very few stackable units. Actually, it came down to just one, and it’s now installed and chugging away.

Here’s the thing: I dislike learning new technology, and every time I turn around that’s precisely what I’m called upon to do. In the past 20 years the settings on washing machines have undergone a transformation worthy of a far thicker set of instructions than ever before. Instead of a few basic choices, we now have at least nine choices to make before closing the lid and walking away.

A few weeks ago I had to get a new cell phone. Last week I gingerly tiptoed onto the Substack learning curve. When does it end? I guess I’ll just have to accept that, well, it doesn’t. (“Don’t be a curmudgeon, Deanne,” says the gently chiding, pesky voice in my head.) Sigh. The good news is that we’re now caught up on laundry. And I know how to write and post a note on Substack. Progress.