I'm going to walk more this year. I spend too much time just sitting, and I need to spend more time on my feet. When I'm walking, I do more fiction writing -- not at the same time, but it helps me work out what needs to happen, in what order.
I'm going to try to doomscroll less this year. I'm not going to stop following the news; when nitwits are hell-bent to make to mess of normal election processes and candidates are mumbling about violence, it's a good idea to keep an eye on them. But I'm going to make an effort to not be distracted by distressing trivia. Jerks in and out of office have been pulling attention-getting stunts as long as the Republic has stood, and have occasionally managed to turn them into ill-meaning and ill-tempered law, but historically we have corrected such missteps, sooner or later.
I'm going to replace the appliances that need it. The dishwasher's been dead since early in the pandemic and we stopped using the garbage disposal when it showed a predisposition to back up into the defunct dishwasher. Both of 'em need replaced now. And the elderly range is long overdue for replacement. Retirement (or possibly a shift to reduced hours) looms (unless the economy takes a turn for the worse), and I need to get the major stuff out of the way first. I gave up too easily on my first try to get a new dishwasher, in part because I'm going to have to scrub the kitchen first.
There are a few furniture-building projects the need done, too. I promised Tam a kind of chifferobe, I have been intending to make display shelves full length of the living room wall behind the couch for various items (cameras, telegraph keys, old computers, typewriters) we have scattered here and there, and I need to make still more bookshelves, replacing the last of my first decent set of home-made shelves, now over 40 years old. They're still pretty solid, but they're too short and too wide for where we are using them. The shelves are pretty straightforward; I keep putting off the chifferobe because it's going to require a version of panel and frame construction and has to fit the available space quite precisely. It's time that I accepted that my first try is probably going to be ugly, and got on with it.
I feel your pain. We have a 1990s fridge that is acting up, a mid-2000s range where the oven isn't keeping consistent temps and the burners won't let me simmer anything. The dishwasher now only runs on pods as something broke inside the dispenser.
ReplyDeleteThe stuff out there now all looks like pieces of crap. An appliance repair guy said to buy the extended warranty and be prepared to replace things when the warranty runs out. he said if you get six years out of anything, anymore, count yourself lucky.
Some years ago, another appliance guy came in to fix the broken belt on my washer/dryer (stacked unit). He suggested buying a few parts before they became unobtanium. The plastic locking latch on the machine later broke; I had a gunsmith make a new one out of lexan. (I had to give up that machine when I moved and I still regret that.)
And all of the repair guys said not to get the icemaking/chilled water models, those functions are known failure points.
"They don't make them like that anymore" is a valid observation with appliances.
The demand for increasing feature lists while remaining incredibly price conscious has inevitable side effects.
ReplyDeleteAutomobiles being so highly regulated (and highly priced) puts them outside the worst effects of this. Similarly, firearms sold to major government purchasers tend to be held to at least marginal standards for reliability and support. But toaster ovens? LOL. What're you gonna do, Consumer? Complain on Amazon?