Never in My Wildest Dreams

The heating element on our 20-year-old Kenmore dryer went kaput. The schematic suggested that the problem could be a fuse, but after much prodding, pushing, unbolting, unscrewing, upending, and, yes, cursing (the dryer is wedged in a tight space), I couldn’t access the fuse. Not for the first time I concluded that my father’s electrician’s certificate is of far more practical value than my sheepskin in the social sciences.

Quickly dispensing with the idea of paying for a service call on an ancient appliance, we canvassed Costco, Sears, Best Buy, and Circuit City for a replacement that could fit into the space, yet have sufficient capacity to handle the output from our front-loading washer. The few suitable models were more than $700 and had a wait time of at least two weeks. We didn’t relish the idea of hauling our clothes to the laundromat, even for a brief period.

But this is the 21st century, when people can hook up instantaneously for many purposes, among them the trading of used appliances. On Craigslist I quickly found two dryers that could fill the bill. A couple of back-and-forth e-mails eliminated one candidate, but the one in Palo Alto seemed ideal. The seller was a Stanford Humanities professor who had re-piped her laundry room with natural gas and had no further use for her four-year-old Kenmore electric. Her price was a non-negotiable $150, and I would have to come get it.

After confirming that the dryer worked, I forked over the cash. The dryer slid easily into our van. My elation over an excellent economic transaction was dampened by the thought that never in my wildest dreams did I envision myself trucking to Palo Alto 33 years after earning my MBA to pick up a used dryer. You don’t want to see that in the Class Notes. Oh well, I won't tell if you won't.

It fit, and it works.

© 2009 Stephen Yuen