Incompetent

I have had my washing machine for almost 2 years now. Just today I figured out that I can run a cycle with hot water. Since we have individual hot water heaters for each sink or shower in our apartment, I assumed since our washer did not have a separate external hot water heater attached to it, the water only ran cold. In fact recently I even considered purchasing a separate hot water heater for our washing machine. It just feels more clean.

Here is what I discovered today: my washing machine has a flash hot water heater built into it. It heats up the water up to 90 degrees Celsius, and that is really hot! That is why that thing was so expensive! My friends always think we overpay for everything, and when they ask me (which they always do) how much I paid for my washing machine or any other appliance, they act like they are going to have a heart attack when I tell them. In my defense though, my friends do not even own a washing machine, so they do not have anything to compare it to. My machine was mid-price.

After my discovery I felt a little down on myself because of my ignorance. Why did I wait 2 years to press the "temperature" button? In my defense, I really thought it only applied to those who had a hot water heater hooked up to their machine - like in the US...but I am not in the US and things don't work here like the do in the US. I have to keep reminding myself that.

However, to cheer myself up I recalled a story about my Aunt Vicki. This either happened when I was really young, or before I was born. My Aunt Vicki is not known for her cooking. I think she has the potential to do really well, but sometimes she gets distracted and makes notable mistakes somewhere in the process. I have honestly never eaten anything bad that she has made, but I have heard about it. These stories tend to get told over and over again, and I think people then forget that she has made tasty things before.

One day my Aunt Vicki when into her kitchen and discovered she could not open her oven. Who knows how long it had been like this since she does not cook often, but nevertheless from that day on she was quite happy that her oven did not open. I am sure she dedicated at least 30 seconds to figuring it out, but since she was content to finally have a good excuse for not cooking anything, I am sure she only tried half-heartedly. Then sometime at least a YEAR later, someone walked over to her oven and unlocked it by turning it off of the self clean cycle. My Aunt Vicki was both astonished and horrified that her oven was able to open again and that she was no longer off the hook. She had no excuses now. She had to cook.

I may have not known about the hot water, but in my defense the directions to my washing machine are entirely in an language that I can barely speak, and I cannot read much beyond sentences like, "That is the library" "This is my good friend Shen Ben (a Japanese name)" and "I like to eat bread." My aunt locked her own oven for over a year and she in the US. Also her oven instructions were in English. I feel better about myself already. Thanks Aunt Vicki.