“Never heard of them,” says he.

“They’re the ones you see in laundromats. Our grandmothers had them.”

So the interesting thing I learned today is that Speed Queen still makes a washing machine with no electronic controls. That plain old dial really is just a plain old dial behind there. Even better, the machinery is all metal, not plastic, and it is made in America. On the Consumer Reports website, they didn’t rate it highly but when I clicked through machine after machine on all the others, the user reviews were relentlessly negative, what there were of them.

And yet not two or three but 156 people so far had to speak up about this one, very nearly all of them demanding to be heard over CR’s dismal ranking: this is a great machine! Built to last! No it doesn’t save water but yes it does if it does it right the first time and you don’t have to spend another hour waiting for the slow high-efficiency models to have a do-over.

Meaning I finally have my washing machine picked out if I do have to buy one–the repairman comes tomorrow, we’ll see. But I thought you all would love to know there’s actually one out there that they really do make them like they used to. With a longer warranty by far than anyone else’s. They test it to a number of cycles that is 25 years’ worth for your average family–that is the company’s expected minimum of its life expectancy.

Someone who takes pride in their product. Hal-le-freaking-lu-jah.

The one thing I want to know, and I shot them off an email, is this: does it have a no-spray spin cycle? We fiber artists need those. You can spin anything, even the finest merino, without felting it–if the water doesn’t spray on it as it twirls. We’ll find out. (I can always turn off the water valves but I don’t want to have to.)

Edited to add Thursday morning–I just heard back from them and yes there is a spin setting you can do that on. Perfect!

Meantime, I ran a load at Michelle’s.

The city tore up the sidewalk in front of my next-door neighbors’ house yesterday and completely blocked their whole stretch off by barriers with blinking lights jutting into the street.

I came home to find a small Google driverless car stopped there nose to barrier.

This does not compute?

It didn’t move.

I waited. There wasn’t anyone in–oh wait, yes there was, as the guy leaned forward.

I motioned: you’re blocking my driveway. (There were No Parking On The Street This Week signs all up and down the block, so that was not an option.)

Oh oops sorry! (had he been tweaking the program on the go?) and it pulled out of my way and away.

So if you see a driverless car that can figure its way around those things? They learned it here first.