laundry and trash

My washer died on me last week. It lead a good long life of 15 years and at least 3 owners, but dying while mid spin cycle was still a bit sad for me. You see one thing that has been a constant for me in my years of living on my own is not having to go to a laundrymat. I always looked for a place that had a washer & dryer, even if it was a community one in our building while in college. That wasn't too bad as we had 8 of each and only 20 units...never too crowded. When I moved to my little slice of Shangri-la I had no washer or dryer, but my dad lived next door. I got laundry privilages and I shared my computer with him. A set up that worked quite well for the 9 years we lived by each other. When he moved a couple years back to retire to Mexico

( which thankfully only lasted a year )

I got custody of the machines. My neighbor hooked up gas, water & electricity to the

outside of my house out back. My brother & a good friend built an

amazing little shed to cover them...seriously if we have an earthquake

that is the most stable part of my house!

So, the having to go to the laundrymat today was a not so fun experience that I would like to make not happen again, oh let's say ever. I was one of a few english as my first language people there, and the only one without kids. I tried to look more positive about this and think, hey this way you get 2 loads done in half the time it takes you at home. Oh, and I could release some books as this is a somewhat captive audience right? Nice in theory. Soon to be disproved by the ever so charming man that "works" at the laundrymat, not sure

what his title is as he didn't talk, but scowled at all of us.

As I was moving my laundry from the washers ($1.75 each BTW ) to the

dryers ( $0.25 for 8 minutes ) he spied my 4 books I had sitting over by the magazines & free paper area. They man picked them up and threw them away. Books...who really throws away books? I could not even handle seeing it, yes I was leaving them in the big wide world, but I thought it was a nice thing for someone to have a bit to read. Guess this man thought it was trash someone left. I have heard stories of this sort of thing on bookcrossing, but have never in my life actually seen someone throw away a book. I choose to pick them up out of the trash, it was a freshly cleaned can after all , and rescue my books. They ended up going to the thrift store with my other stuff I had cleaned from my closet as I truly did not want to take them back home. As previously mentioned I have enough books at home right now.