No sooner had I clicked “publish” on last night’s feel-good entry than I heard the dryer buzzer. I felt the laundry inside and decided it needed a few more minutes. I cleaned the lint from the trap, then set it aside while I pulled some additional lint from the tray that holds the lint trap. I then started the dryer and walked away, only to hear a muffled grinding sound and then a dead hum as the motor in the dryer tried to run but was stopped.

No good deed, as we know, goes unpunished, and in my efforts to remove the additional lint, I forgot to replace the trap, and the machine immediately ingested a wash rag, which stopped the mechanism instantly.

Despite having to speak to a phone rep whose third language was English and who talked too fast, a repair person was in the house within a couple of hours and, for $150 service call charge, disassembled the mechanism and pulled out the wash rag. He told us, “This happens all the time. I wish they’d put a switch on the trap so it wouldn’t run without it.”

Our machines are front-loading Kenmore Elite washer and dryer units. The washer doesn’t get the clothes as clean as I’d like, but the dryer, when I’m not choking it, gets laundry super-dry, super-fast.