At the Laundromat

I had to wash the slipcover for my sofa, which I used to wash once a year but until today had not been washed since before the pandemic. It has to be washed at a laundromat with oversized machines because it's just too big and heavy for any normal machine.

Anyway, so I hadn't been to a laundromat since before the pandemic and holy hell, y'all, the prices have more than doubled. It used to be $3.50 to use the big machine. Now it's $8.00. I also took the rest of my laundry, so long as I was there, and the regular machines are now $4.00. They used to be $1.50.

The dryers are now ten minutes for fifty cents. I think they used to be fifteen minutes for fifty cents, but I'm not sure about that. The big dryer, which I have to use for the slipcover, is $3.75 for 30 minutes. I don't remember what it used to be.

Anyway, the entire experience took me two hours and cost me over $30.00, counting the cold brew coffee I bought at the gas station on the way.

Besides me, the clientele was mostly mothers with small children, though there was one guy who looked like he worked on oil rigs. I remember going to the laundromat with my mother when we were small; she would buy us candy from a snack machine, and there was a corner with toys for all the kids. No snack machine in this laundry, and no toys for the kids. They ran up and down screaming instead, and seemed to have just as much fun as I did with the toy garage and blocks.