Burning Down The House

I've mentioned before the hassles of washing and drying our clothes around here. Washing has turned easier, but drying is a pain all the time. Winters in Shanghai are very moisture intensive and clothes hang on the line wet if you don't help them along. When it is cold enough I try to run the air blowing heaters towards them, which helps a little, but not really that much.

Since we have purchased a small, electric heater I have been using it as a clothes dryer as well. It works amazingly well, drying individual items in about ten minutes a pop. It is actually a lot of fun to place the heater towards a rather wet piece of clothing and watched the steam pour off.

The other day I noticed that one of my towels had a couple of brown spots on it. Weird looking stains. I stood there a moment trying to remember if this towel was purchased new, or if it was second hand. I was pretty sure it was new which made me wonder how in the world it had a bit stain already. I pondered what we could have spilled on it and worried that our washing machine might be causing trouble.

Days later I fond another towel with similar spots, and with some investigation I also found a hole in it. A cigarette burn looking hole.

And then it dawned on me. The heater isn't only quickly drying my clothes, but it is burning them too! I've always been careful when drying the clothes in this manner that I am within eyeshot of the heater so that if anything were to catch on fire I could quickly either put it out or escape. I guess I haven't been too careful as to put the heater at a decent distance from the clothes.

Yesterday, while folding a sweater I too noticed it had heat stains and a burn mark.

D'oh!