Tuesday-7:45am

Yesterday I was washing clothes. I had three loads to do. After the first load was dry, I opened the door to take the clothes out--and there was this thudding, banging noise--when the dryer wasn't on at all! Very loud--came and went--banging hard like it was behind the dryer or in the wall. Very creepy! Like it didn't want to shut off? I quick put the next load of clothes in the dryer, turned it on, and the thudding went away. I didn't smell anything burning or any other weird electrical smell. I thought maybe it was a fluke.

Next load--same thing. I tried to wait and see if it would finally stop on it's own--five minutes later it was still going--very loudly. I got the next load in the dryer, turned it on, and the sound quit. I called the office and told them I needed the maintenance man to come by--and why. Third load dry and the guy hadn't shown up yet. I called again because I was afraid he wouldn't show up (it was 3:45pm by this time) and I was having to run my dryer non-stop--afraid to shut it off.

He finally arrived. Guess what it was!! The wind was just the right direction on the outside of the building (we had wind advisories again yesterday) so that it caught the vent flap when I shut the dryer off. The heat from the dryer opens the vent. And the wind was strong enough yesterday--swirling around the building in these constant strong gusts--that it kept banging and smashing the vent against the building. No wonder it felt like the wall was shaking! I was the third call he had gotten yesterday with people thinking their dryers had gone crazy--hehe! Was very, very funny when I found out what it was--hehe!

I have lived here for over three years. We have wind advisories regularly up here in the Fargo/Moorhead area. We have many days where the wind howls and whistles all day and night long like it did yesterday. I guess I never had the right combination of exact wind direction and power--and been washing clothes on the same day--hehe! Thank goodness the wind died down long enough for the dryer vent to close and there was peace once again in my little corner of the world. :)