.schleudern.or.woes.of.a.housewife.

In other words: spin cycle. As I have learnt, "schleudern" is the German word for the spin cycle on your washing machine. I learnt this because for the past ten days or so, we have been having some serious washer trouble. First, our washing machine pretended to be done with the washing cycle, but without having done the rinsing or spinning cycle. So we asked the mechanics to come look at it. They "fixed it" the next day. I thought "hooray!" and happily proceeded with my housewifely (is there such a word?) tasks.
Alas, two days later, the same problem occurred. Called the mechanics, who promptly came and removed said machine, and left a replacement. A German one, with EVERYTHING on it written in German. Thus my renewed interest in learning German vocabulary. This machine is older, uglier, harder to use (way more buttons to press), but nonetheless a washer. This was last Thursday morning. So I put in a load on Friday afternoon. It worked. It came out clean. Oh, how happy I was!
And then, yesterday (Tuesday) morning, I started yet another load, my heart filled with the expectation of clean laundry. But it wasn't meant to be. Around two hours later the machine seemed to be done with the load. I even heard it rinse and spin before it stopped. Open the door, and out came the soggy, wet, soapy laundry. That was FAKE rinsing and FAKE spinning!!!!!!

I set the machine to just rinsing and spinning three more times that day, and rinse it did, but spin it didn't. I finally had to squeeze the water out of each piece of clothing by hand, like our grandmothers did. My appreciation for the women who have gone before me has grown immensely, needless to say.
So until something is worked out with our washing machine situation, I will be going in their footsteps, ever more appreciative of the luxury of modern conveniences.