Monday, August 31, 2020

Do We Even NEED To Use Silverware?

Remember April? When this whole pandemic/social isolation thing was still new and my dishwasher broke (AGAIN) and Larry -- after sexily trying to fix it -- ordered us a new one that arrived within a week and saved us from having to wash and dry dishes for 5 (now 6) people?

Remember how excited I was?

5 months, people - the shining, three-racked wonder pictured above lasted 5 months in this appliance-killing household of mine. Granted, in dishwasher years, it was over a year old, not a puppy anymore, given that we run it 12 times a week instead of the 4 its projected longevity is based on.

4 times a week - what is up with that, anyway? If I had so few dishes that I only ran this thing once every other day, I wouldn't really NEED a dishwasher, now would I?

So, yeah, it's broken. And, yes, Larry spent about an hour trying to fix it, which is just exactly what he loves to do with an almost-brand-new appliance. But it refused to respond to his not-so-tender ministrations (some cursing was involved), so I made an appointment with Maytag (it's still under warranty, because it's almost brand new - have I mentioned that? I think I have). 

The soonest available appointment? 8 days out. Okay, I thought, we're strong. We can make it 8 days. Maybe.

So last Thursday, while I was out waving my flag and trying to be an activist, Brian was home to let the repair guy in to, you know, fix the dishwasher. As I marched along, tired as I was, I reveled in the thought that there wouldn't be an entire sinkful of dishes (and silverware - it's the silverware that kills me) to wash and dry that night. Instead, having done my civic duty, I would go home and rest peacefully on my couch while listening to the familiar hum of a not-so-trusty kitchen appliance, repaired and restored. 

I think it was somewhere around mile 4 when I noticed Brian had posted a message to the family group chat: NO DISHWASHER FIX TODAY. 

Turns out, the dishwasher model I have is new this year and apparently there have been a lot of problems with certain parts, and because of COVID, all those parts are back ordered. Meaning, we have no idea when it will be fixed. According to Brian, when he asked, the guy just shrugged and said, "We'll call you."

So we don't even have a day to pin our hopes on, a goal to work toward. This ordeal (YES, it is an ordeal, dammit, you try washing a zillion forks every single day) could continue for weeks, or months. We don't know. And, gosh, isn't THAT a familiar feeling in 2020?

In the meantime, we're back to this:

My trusty Michael Graves dish-drying rack

Sometimes it's the tried-and-true that holds you up when everything falls to pieces. Family, friends, dishracks...especially dishracks...

In other news, Susie and I went to Michaels the other day and decided that they really should have rethought the Halloween marketing for this year:

Seems a tad tone deaf for 2020, you know?

Maybe just put out some cheerful pumpkins and scarecrows and leave it at that? Thanks.

And...Larry once again proved his ability to provide for our family by locating not one -- not two, even -- but THREE containers of Lysol-type wipes at Wegmans recently. This, my friends, is almost as sexy as trying to repair a dishwasher. At least, in 2020 it is...

11 comments:

  1. OMG 5 Months!!! There’s only 3 of us in this house because we managed to send one off to college (fingers crossed it sticks) and we still run the dishwasher more than 4 times a week. Not quite every day but only because I insist on takeout a couple times a week because cooking every lunch and dinner is killing me. Are we there yet?

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  2. I'm not sure why I have a dishwasher, except there would be a big hole in the cabinets if I didn't. Even though I only run mine once every couple of weeks - and only because I know it needs to run, the darn thing still acts up and I have to poke around to try to get it to drain properly. Or maybe it is due to not running it more frequently. There are only two of us here and I can hand wash our dishes faster than the dishwasher. I can't imagine the amount of dishes you have with 5 or 6 of you there. Good luck with Maytag!

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  3. UGH!!!! Not having an expected repair date is a bummer. But you scored a lot of wipes so things are looking up, right?

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  4. No sympathy here I don't have a dishwasher at all lol.

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  5. There are TWO of us living in this house currently - and we run the dishwasher at least once a day - a full dishwasher. I cannot imagine having a houseful of people and no dishwasher...in your shoes, I would be delegating the dish washing duties...particularly since it seems you are the one who does the cooking. It's only fair.

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  6. Right after the initial shutdown in March (Remember how we gamely insisted we could isolate for the 2 weeks they said it would take to flatten the curve? I remember, too!) Well, my 2 year old Whirlpool's pump--its HEART! (which replaced my builder grade 18 year old GE) died. So we washed the damn dishes until I finally gave up and decided to buy the next price/quality step up rather than fix it, which wasn't cost effective at all. The happy ending is this new one is SO MARVELOUS I can't believe it, and the dishes are squeaky clean and sparkle like new. And also Nancy Pelosi made sure I could pay for it all by giving me that unemployment insurance bonus, because Nancy hates doing dishes by hand, too.

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    1. Do tell - which brand? Model? Maybe we'll try that next, after this one goes totally kaput in another 3 years.

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  7. I am embarrassed to be responding so late that I am grouped with the spam message above. Oh, I can compare notes on lousy broken dishwashers all day long. I had the worst luck with multiple units, but if memory serves Maytag might have been the worst. Sorry. Really sorry, because we have 7 people living here and I KNOW what it means to have a lot of forks used in a day, and cups. Ugh. We have two dishwashers and I often run them both at night. They just don't make them like they used to is no joke. We have a fridge drawer in our small island that has failed about a dozen times in 3 years. It is a Thermador. They are also having trouble with parts. The board, I believe. So they keep updating it and then replacing it. Um, isn't that something you do before you sell it to the public? Good luck!

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  8. OOOOOOOOHHHHH That is a BAD Halloween display. Yipes!
    What kind of bum luck do you have with dishwashers? That's awful! I'm on my second one in almost 18 years so I'm going to go feel very lucky right now...

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  9. We run ours about 4 times a week, but it's just 3-4 of us now. When the whole famdamily is here, we run it twice a day. The craft store display is definitely tone deaf to 2020 and possibly 2021. (I'm not holding my breath.) And while I'm not at the store every week, I have yet to find those sanitizing wipes. You win!

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