Dryer Woes

When we bought our house, the washer and dryer were included. This was perfect since we were moving from an apartment. I was really excited to be able to do laundry and not have to walk down a fire escape!

When we moved in we noticed that there was no know on the dryer. The previous owners had been using a pair of needle nose pliers and turning the metal shaft that the knob would sit on to operate the dryer. Ok, so that was a pretty shady thing to see but one that was easily remedied. I found the make a model of the dryer, called the company and ordered a replacement knob. I have to shake my head here because the replacement knob was $4.95 (no bigggie right?) but shipping was $14.95 (WTF???). But what choice did I have. $18.95 is a lot cheaper than a new dryer and it solved the problem.

I haven't given much thought to my dryer knob until this past Monday. I was reaching for a cloth with which to condition my leather furniture when I knocked a new and totally full bottle of Ecover Fabric Softener back behind my dryer.

"Oh crap... I have to get that... it's brand new... it's full... it could start to leak... ok...."

So I got out the step stool and a flashlight and took a look behind the dryer. I can see the Ecover, I can see a bunch of dust cloths, I can see a Oxyclean scoop... and hey look, there is a screw driver. I also notice that there is enough slack in the gas line that I can move the dryer some.

So I move the dryer. I can't move it all the way out, but I can move it enough to get a better view of what's back there. I can also get something in there to scoop all the stuff out. So I get Nate's lacrosse stick and start scooping. Well, scooping doesn't work as well as I had hoped so I push all the stuff the the side and then around to the front and start pickup up the wayward items. The bottle of Ecover is in tact... the cloths get tossed, the screw driver gets put away, the Oxyclean scoop gets recycled and... wait, what is this? What is this white circle of plastic? Wait, is this the ORIGINAL KNOB TO THE DRYER???

Well my webby friends... it was the original knob to my dryer, intact and fully functional.

When I first saw the dryer and noticed the knob was missing I figured that it had broken or cracked or was pecked off my crows. I figured there was something wrong with it not that it suddenly went missing one day and the people went, "wow, I see the dryer knob is missing... I guess it vanished in to thin air... lets not look for it... lets just use these shady-ass pliers like HILLBILLYS!!!!!"

I ask you gentle blog readers... have you ever noticed that a fairly important and prominent part of a major appliance was missing with no explanation whatsoever and not tried to find it????