[lit-ideas] Re: Paper, Plastic, the Vacuum

  • From: Julie Krueger <juliereneb@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Thu, 16 Feb 2012 21:26:08 -0600

Having recently purchased a new washer and dryer, I feel your pain in
spades.  It was beyond obvious, for starters, that the salesman had never
washed a load of laundry in his life...

The "sturdiness" factor for even the expensive models was not anything
close to my old machines.  I suspect it will be less expensive to replace
them than repair them when the new ones break down.

A violin student today told me that she had trouble finding a course music
book at local music stores; she was advised, however, that she could
download it for a price and print and bind it herself.  Maybe I should
replace my music stand with a laptop stand.

It costs me less to replace my printer when I run out of ink than to
replace the ink.

Off to read a book which, old-fashioned that I am, has actual paper pages I
turn with my hand.

Julie Krueger
apparently a curmudgeon, already




On Thu, Feb 16, 2012 at 8:09 PM, David Ritchie <profdritchie@xxxxxxxxx>wrote:

>
> Dishwasher repair guy arrived today and promptly declared our beast to be
> beyond all hope.  Having investigated the innards and knowing this was
> likely, why did I keep the appointment?  Yesterday I went to a showroom and
> quickly learned that dishwashers have not improved over the last decade and
> may have become worse.  Thus I hoped we could make our good old one make do
> with, say, a new pump.  I got my money's worth from the man by quizzing him
> up and down about which ones he repairs least, which one he owns and so on.
>  Then I asked for a lesson in cleaning the refrigerator's coil, which I had
> been unable to locate.  This is because in the new and improved
> refrigerators they moved what used to be at the back of the machine to a
> handy dandy spot...underneath.  To clean the coil, you simply lie on the
> floor, pop off the plastic cover and suck all the dust into your beard and
> up your nose.  There's an improvement!  But of course if you don't do
> this...the compressor overheats and the fridge dies.  We had quite the
> collection of dog and cat hair in ours.
>
> Off we went this afternoon to see what appliance stores could offer.  The
> trusty one we used to frequent has been taken over by new owners.  Outside
> were a Mercedes and an Audi.  Inside was a grumpy fellow who seemed not the
> least bit interested in selling anything.  Would barely speak to us.  All I
> can think is that it's a Mafia front of some kind.  Further up the street
> there was once a boat dealer that operated on the same principle.  It
> turned out that it was a money-laundering operation.  Maybe I should ask
> the appliance dealer whether he could wash some of my notes in one of his
> machines?
>
> The next place had dishwashers with plastic roundy roundy bits,
> dishwashers with doors that squeak as you open them, dishwashers with racks
> that roll out smoothly...some of the time.  Choices, choices.  We thought
> we had a contender until one of us asked how/why some of the machines are
> ADA compliant.  It turns out that some dishwashers are now taller than
> others.  The way they sell the short old ones is by explaining that folk in
> wheelchairs will be able to load them.  We had to go home to measure
> whether our space is the right size for either option.  We believe it is.
>
> Now we refer to our handy notes on which ones didn't squeak.  It may have
> been D5424ADA B or maybe 230358764.  Or possibly 0216270PLII.  To avoid
> potential trouble with the Geneva Convention, we didn't record name and
> rank.
>
> Carry on,
>
> David Ritchie,
> Portland,
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