It's a diary of my normal life, the 5%.
Just posting my replies to the monthly newsletter questions between the
family and cousins. Dragon comments are after, "In the record".
Newsletter 198 - Washing/Dryer Machines, The Good, Bad, & Ugly Vacation, & Flower Gardens -
2025 August
David– Memory lane on washers and dryers is an excellent review on why I now have the ventless LG washer/dryer combo. Like Vince, I remember the wringer at Grandma Pavlovich’s garage. As a youngster, I looked at the machine and neighboring wash basins. The garage was dark and mysterious, with filter light from the window and wonder how did it all work. Let’s travel in time to Corona, I remember the clothesline in the backyard. I remember it rusting away and being replaced with a swing set which was most excellent. Jumping in time again to the UCSC dorm washers and dryers. I lived on the top floor and guess where the laundry room was…the basement. Thanks goodness I was fit and could walk up all 5 flights of stairs. Now let’s skip to Berkeley in the new house. Susan and I had a top washer and dryer to start with but replaced it with a stackable LG washer and dryer. The new space allowed us to hang clothes out of the dryer. Also, they were upstairs on the 2nd floor.
Let jump again to my being single. I again wanted a stackable washer/dryer. See pic. But it was never at the right height. The dryer controls were up high and the washer clothes were low. Also, the washer never drained completely and started to smell. I thought about getting a stackable ventless combo where the controls were in the middle, but then I saw reviews on the new LG combo and it was ventless. So I purchased from Costco the LG combo with bottom pull out tray.
The benefits are excellent. The drum is now dry because the drying process dries the drum. Goodbye lingering water smell. The lint trap is 100% in capturing lint. And it has to for the heat pump to work on both the wash and dry cycles. The trap is a breeze to clean. See video. The bottom tray has its own basket. See pic. I wash all my clothes in one load but dry them separately due to different materials in the tray basket. The spin cycles are amazing. The clothes feel almost dry before the dry cycle. The drum and controls are at the right height. It is quiet and does not vibrate. If I am doing a sheet load, I set it for a wash/dry cycle.
The only negative is no shoe drying rack but I can live without that. And I had to switch back to HE liquid detergent v. tablets.
Overall, the combo is an upgrade in my life.
The only negative is no shoe drying rack but I can live without that. And I had to switch back to HE liquid detergent v. tablets.
Overall, the combo is an upgrade in my life.
I going ventless on all home appliances for protection against firestorm. More on that in a future newsletter.
Running out of time here. Flowers. See the title page for the African Iris, a.k.a. Fortnight Lily. It is amazing that it was all in bloom. The next day I went out and they were all gone. The deer had a buffet that night.
On to the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly vacation.
- Family trips to Legoland were good to bad. The vacation spots of the San Diego Zoo, Wild Animal Park, Sea World, Old town, La Jolla beach walks, San Diego Botanic Garden were cool. The botanic garden had bamboo from small to monster size. And the food was excellent at Carlsbad. We tried to go cheap and stayed at various hotel and rental that had noise or maintenance issues. We finally wise up and stay in a nice hotel towards the end of our trips there. Also the beach in the marina were bad from sewage issues. You would see diapers washed up on the beach.
- All the open water swim camping trip were excellent. You drive to your campsite. Pitch the tent and throw your futon mattress in with bed sheet. The site by the bathroom were cool because you could plugin the microwave and make nachos for dinner. And the swims were good.
- The Japan trip was both good and ugly. I went to Japan with my friend Josh. The goal was to meet up with other there and vacation together and to spend time away from each other. Those people have no ideal on how to plan. We were running to a place to buy bullet train tickets before it close. Or we missed the last shuttle and had to walk up a huge hill with suitcase to get to the hotel. Or they would forget to tell us to locker our bags for the picnic in which we dragged the suitcase on dirt paths destroying them. When I finally got away from them I was able to enjoy the few day of me planning what I wanted to do.
- The trip to St. Louis to visit Dawna was an bad vacation. The heat and humidity was so hot that it cooked everyone else except me.
- The trip to Hawaii with Susan and the boys was an ugly vacation. On the first beach day, they all got sunburned which meant no more hikes. The only reason I was not sunburned is because I had to do multiple trips to the car to get stuff and the car was far away. We did get to drive all over the place which was nice and visit museums.
- The road trip with Rick, Pam, Dave Turner, and me was an ugly trip in a VW bug. It turned out the bug broke down and we spent a day at a gas station for the repair. At one point we meet up with someone and there was no room in the car for them. So I volunteered to scrunch up in the car hatch behind the back seats for the drive because I was the smallest of everyone there.
- The road trip with Judy and her Spanish friends was an ugly vacation. We had a choice between Canada or Mexico. I pleaded with them to go to Canada, but no, they wanted to see Mexico. I have nothing against Mexico other than they have no services to keep their country clean. So we saw bus high piles of trash on a beach. A pile of cars driven off the cliff. People driving insane. I forgot and ate a salad and got food poisoning. The rush hour of traffic in LA was horrendous. There was nothing redeemable about the trip.
The best consistent vacations I had were day trips from Sacramento to the snow.
It is hard to beat the weather in the Bay Area and the variety of things to do here in the Bay.
Stay safe everyone. Wear clean clothes. Keep on reading.
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