I want a Do Over

A NEW LEARNING
Our dishwasher gave it up this week. We have had it for sixteen years. Experts tell us that this exceeds life expectancy for this appliance.

In the past couple of months we have replaced our clothes washing machine and our clothes dryer, our stove and now this.

Our home is perhaps eighteen years old so these replacements are to be expected but they are nevertheless a disappointment after one has retired from gainful employment. I dreamily thought that these appliances, being machines, would just keep washing, rinsing and drying indefinitely. Redundancy is built into machinery because parts wear out.

Oh, don’t I know about that! My parts are wearing out. We have had two great warm and dry days and I have spent them outside doing garden tasks, trimming hedges, raking gardens, power washing decks, varnishing teak furniture and playing a tiny bit of golf. And now my arthritic hands are killing me. I have a medical doctor with a realistic attitude, bordering on flippant attitude to my pain. Invariably my complaints are met with something tantamount to a “what do you expect?” He reminds me that my physical issues are part of the ageing process. My parts are reaching their life expectancy. Thanks for the help Doc!

I didn’t tell you that we have been seriously considering downsizing our living space so the sale of our house now, will include all new appliances to the prospective purchasers. Lucky them! Oh, and of course, something else happened. My eyeglasses broke. Everything about me requires corrective applications or artificial appliances. I snapped the metal of my bottom partial teeth – yes I have those too. That required repair. Now the glasses, and my prescription is such that a simple drug store pair won’t do – oh no! I need $800 eye glasses.

I cost myself more money than my appliance replacements. But I am worth it! Oh sure!
In another era, without the technology we now have, I would likely be toothless with impaired sight, and a host of other maladies. No wonder people cashed in at earlier ages. All the parts wore out so much sooner.