I had everything planned to get the laundry done on Sunday so that Clancy would start her week with a fresh batch of clothes to start from.

Things didn’t work out that way as the washer just upped and died. Well, it didn’t die. It went on strike is more likely, holding up a sign saying “I am not locked!” as it pickets the utility room. All of this being my clunky or clever way of saying that the problem seems to be relatively straightforward. It’s not properly locking, and without locking it won’t start a load.

Which meant that I got to spend Labor Day at the laundry mat. I have been to the laundromat a couple of times for heavy blankets. The one I go to is on the sketchy side of town, mostly because it’s the one that came up when I initially googled it, and now I’m familiar with it.

I had vaguely figured that the best time to go to the mat is in the morning. Most of the people most likely to use it don’t seem like the type to be early risers. This seems to be wrong, as each of three times it’s been busy when Ight the entire place was neat. For the most part. Her patience wore thin and for the second time she strung together the sentence “Want to go home.” Had it not been so busy, we would have been home by that point. She was a real trooper, given that it was hot and I was tyrannical about constantly telling her where she could not go.

Expecting that it would be as hot as it was, I actually wore shorts today and put Lain in the same. I almost never wear shorts. There’s a certain practicality to it when it’s 90 degrees out.

There was a guy there who (objectively!) thought Lain was beautiful and was very friendly to me throughout. He let me know when a device opened up. While we were outside, he came out to smoke a cigarette and we talked. Nice guy but… I very much got a Virulent Racist vibe from him. Race barely came up and he didn’t say anything that could be construed as such. He had some body art, but nothing that jumped out at me (no “88” much less a Swastika). And yet… something about him.

By the time we left, of course another kid right about her age came in. And they were immediately drawn to one another. It would have been great if they weren’t ships passing in the night. I guess still exhausted, Lain was still okay to leave her new friend. I explained that on Tuesday she would be starting preschool and she’d have more friends than she would know what to do with.