The Simple Life?

So my clothes dryer started making this really bad burning smell about two weeks ago and my house has become a virtual clothesline. There are clothes hanging in doorways and on the shower rod. It's kinda funny, reminds me of the old Honeymooners shows where they would have clothes hanging across a line strung through the dining room or something. I have spent several days disassembling the dern thing to figure out what is wrong. It is not the belt (it's not a rubbery kind of burning smell and the tub doesn't slip when it is turned on), it is not the lint (I've removed the hose and completely vacuumed out the line), so I thought for sure it would be the heating element as it only smells when it is on a cycle with heat. "Air fluff" still works fine (so I know it is not the motor) but it would take hours to dry a load on "air fluff"! Finally yesterday, I got the heating element out and I didn't see any signs of damage or a problem. UGH! I don't know if I should spend $80 take a chance on replacing the heating element and have it possible still smell, spend $200-300 on a repair guy, or bite the bullet and spend $450-550 a new dryer. None of the options are really in the budget right now.

Drying the clothes by hanging them hasn't been a big deal, but sheets and towels ... that's a different story! So yesterday I washed the sheets, packed up the kids, three root beers, and a pack of UNO cards and off we went to the local "Coin Laundry" to dry our sheets. I was ready for all kinds of complaining from the kids, but they didn't complain at all. Apparently, root beer and UNO can make any kind of waiting fun. It's the simple things that make life's bumps a little easier to take. My friends think I'm nuts for not just going out and financing a new dryer. I haven't convinced them that a dryer is actually a luxury that our lifestyles have turned into necessity. (I live in a very material world - but I try not to be a material girl!) We haven't financed anything in over 5 years and I have no intentions of starting now. So for now, I'll change my perspective and take pride in the fact that my personal carbon footprint just shrunk a little (at least for now) and try to focus on the fun stuff like UNO and root beer and living the simple life.