It is Sunday morning and I am at the laundry mat. All walks of life are washing their clothes. An older woman in a tie die shirt has taken the opportunity to wash all of her bedding, multiple quilts and duvets, right down to her crocheted afghan. I thought the afghan yarn would’ve melted in the dryer.

A man plays the beat to a tune with his hand in his quarter-filled pocket, a rattling sound emerging with every shake. Each time he leaves and comes back in, the smell of cannabis wafts in with him.

Another man has neatly folded and stacked all of his items. The bath towels are a little larger than I fold them. They are making a strong base for the entire pile, though. Perhaps that’s why he has them folded so largely. He carefully slides them into a presumably clean white garbage bag and carries them out.

Two women work their way through 10 loads of laundry. I know the number because they’re using the two oversized washing machines that have a sign that says “five baskets” above it. They’re old pros. They know to roll the metal laundry basket right under the open door so items fall right in as they unload. I see they bought two dryer sheets for a dollar out of the laundry essentials vending machine. I did remember to bring my own dryer sheets.

As I’m sitting here waiting, I see a few things that I didn’t when I first started today. There are small plastic cups next to the change machine in which to put your quarters in -kind of like at Chuck E. Cheese when you carry your tokens around in the little cup they give you. Also, I now see that the laundry detergent goes in the top part of the washing machine not in the washing machine itself. Hopefully that won’t be an issue with my load.

I like that this laundromat isn’t steaming hot. It’s actually comfortable, with the exception of the news loudly playing on the flat screen televisions they have set up for us. I purposely avoid the news because there’s nothing positive to it.

They open at 5 AM every day. My younger self would have loved this. Today I got here at 8 AM; early enough these days.

They have a sample set up of what a basket of laundry should be right down to the clothes in the basket not heaping over the top. It’s rather small. In fact, I’m not even quite sure where they got such a small laundry basket. Maybe at the dollar store.

I only had to ring the bell for service once. The door light for the side loading machine I’m using is still on even though it’s started to fill with water. The guy said that’s OK even if it leaks.

Oh, hold up. Mr. Cannabis coin in pockets musician just left, all of his clothes stuffed in an oversized pillow case, flip flops flipping and flopping as he walked by. He kept some extra quarters in his pocket by not having to buy a plastic bag for a dollar from the laundry supply vending machine. Also, it’s great that he didn’t put another plastic bag into the world.

The two ladies are folding their laundry now. They’re chatting with each other and making full use of the folding table.

Okay. Six more minutes on the dryer. A man just walked in with a backpack on. He’s not carrying any laundry of any kind. He went into the bathroom. Maybe he has the public bathrooms figured out. Maybe he’s going to get ready for the day in there. Maybe he had to use the restroom quickly and his laundry is outside. I may not have enough time to observe the outcome of this. Once my dryer stops, I will grab my King-sized comforter and go. The pet store opens at 10 and I need to get a special net to fish the tadpoles out of our pool for relocation. This is a big job and will take a while. Until next time, laundry mat.