Even the easy stuff is hard these days.

Yesterday we spent half the day installing a gas dryer.

You see, you can not get anyone to install one of these things without buying their overpriced gas and dryer hoses. To the tune of 30 bucks or so. It doesn't matter if your house was is brand new. It doesn't matter if it was remodeled up to code one day ago. They refuse to install without you purchasing these parts. Period.

I believe this is a form of crony capitalism. I already have front loading machines. Which means my laundry room has been remodeled within the last 5 years. To tell you the truth, about a year ago when the washer started acting up again, Fry's refused to even take the order without the 30 dollar parts. They lost my sale. I know it's only 30 bucks, but it's the principle of the matter.

I was perfectly happy though to tip the installer 20 bucks for reversing my doors on the machines.

This is why governments can never predict tax income. They try to force you in one direction and people wind up saying, eff you, and directing that money in a different direction. It's called the free market. And even when it isn't free, we find ways to make it free.

New dryers are a bit of a bitch to install these days though. Water goes both to the washer and dryer. Because dryers have steam. And when you bought the first one you thought they'd roughly stay the same size. They haven't.