A Marriage Tale

Did you know marriage is on the decline in the United States?  No, I'm not talking about D.I.V.O.R.C.E.  Here's an illustration:  Sixty years ago, a staple American women's magazine, Ladies Home Journal, launched a monthly advice column called:  "Can This Marriage be Saved?"  If you picked up an LMJ, the mag would practically fall open to the start of that feature it was so popular.  When the true story articles began to be written, 75% of Americans were married, now only 50% are, and only 20% (vs 50% in 1960) of Millennials are married.  My figures are from the Pew Research Center, and they claim with justification I think that marriage is the bedrock institution of civilization.  Incidentally, they see the current trend as a reconfiguration of family as a whole in America, but that's another blog entry.

I've been thinking a lot about marriage in the past few weeks.  It's natural since today is my 45th wedding anniversary.  Yes, I know, I look way, way too young to have been married for 45 years.

Not really...  here's what we looked like three days after the 1971 wedding.  Notice how I'm carefully showing off the new wedding ring. I mean, hey, it cost $8.00, and it was GOLD.  (It still is; I'm looking at it right now.)  Have you ever seen such a pair of CHILDREN!!!!  And we thought we were grown up and knew exactly what we were doing. Today, on good days I smile broadly when I think about my 20 year old self, and on bad days, I roll around on the floor, laughing.  Incidentally, this is my only wedding picture taken by my mother who was just so relieved we were no longer living in sin.  She didn't charge us for the photography.  Oh, how times have changed.  

Here we are ten years after the 'wedding portrait'.  Having eloped a decade earlier, I was still regretting not having a real wedding.  At age 30, I was still crying at weddings since I thought I'd missed so much.  There are three interesting things about this photo.  First, Drake is wearing a 'medal' presented to him by our closest friends recognizing how hard it had been on him to be married to me for ten years.  Second, look closely, yes, I have LONG hair and so does Drake!  Third, the celebration of our tenth anniversary was a party, given by Margie McIntyre and Patti Graham, to mimic a wedding reception.  So, thanks to them, I got to have the best part of the wedding....the party!

Fast forward another fifteen years to our 25th anniversary.  (Jeez, when you've been married forever, there's a lot of history, isn't there?).  This time I gave my own party in our Hurst house assisted by our ten year old daughter.  Attendees were most of the same friends who were at my 10th plus some.  I tell you what.  One thing marriage teaches you is to be tenacious.  Once I'm your friend; I'm tough to shake.  

Interesting isn't it we document weddings so relentlessly.  When it comes to marriage, nobody takes any atta girl, atta boy pictures when you consciously pull up your socks and decide you are going to work out the problem, damn it, even if he/she is a total ASS. There aren't any finger pointing, shouting, arm waving, red in the face, door slamming, sullen, pouting silences, quietly expressing your points, grudgingly compromising, making up pictures are there?  There are no leaning on you, building you up, making the best of, working out a budget, sticking to a budget, hand wringing at the sick bed, going to another one of of his/her family events, or always being there in a crisis photos. 

We document our happy events.  Weddings, births, birthday parties, well, any party, actually, holidays, vacations, new houses, new furniture, new cars, special presents, pets, and family gatherings.  So, today is the anniversary of my wedding, which included a trip to Texas (foreshadowing or what), a Dairy Queen meal, a Justice of the Peace ceremony at the Gainesville courthouse, and a thrown together party by our garage mate, Rick Graves.  Today, however, really has nothing to do with our marriage other than to be an arithmetic tally.  

Marriage is too big, too emotional, too big of an investment to be measured by one day. It's a figurative place built carefully year by year, and in the early days not carefully enough, and my marriage is really the story of me since I've always had Drake and he's always had me ever since we were seventeen.  Such a long time; such a short time.      

 

One Bag and Twenty-Nine Years Later

I was in bed last night thinking about sewing.  My bathroom stash currently includes a five year old Good Housekeeping, and in it was a personal essay about sewing. So, trying to arrange my mind for sleep, I realized sewing had saved my sanity when I was 36 years old.

You see, I'd never really planned for children.  Truthfully, I was too selfish, and probably still am for the endeavor of parenting.  However, I reached a point where the accumulation of possessions, coupled with madly chasing a muddled career carrot, interspersed with cool vacations began to pale.  If I had actually had a challenging and interesting career when I was 33 perhaps my life would have turned out differently. Also, there's a certain element of fate in these decisions.

We found ourselves settled in New Orleans, Louisiana, age 35, with a newborn baby, and a new lifestyle which we had deliberately chosen.  As with so many things when you just close your eyes and plunge in, this decision turned out to be the foundation of the most interesting five years of my life.  However, what my life at that time didn't have was a sense of self fulfillment. Parenting newbie people is all about shoving self to the side and concentrating on getting the newbie off to a good start.  This lasts for much, much longer than what you thought you were signing up for.  Couple it with a new very strange town, my new job, which didn't involve other adults and had a LOT of scut work, it was a tough adjustment.

In the mid '80's people didn't really wait until they'd been married fifteen years and in their mid 30's before starting the baby game.  I found most of the other mothers I met to be so very young, without very much life experience, and frankly, boring. Fortunately, my book habit was being satisfied by Radio for the Blind and Print Handicapped, an actual New Orleans radio station, which left my hands free for infant care.  It took about two weeks before I readily admitted to myself I was a complete failure as a homemaker, and worse, found the endless household chores tedious.  Just keeping everything reasonably clean, and putting a basic meal on the table was the extent of my interest in that direction.  I had no sense of personal satisfaction in my life beyond the parenting project, and I felt like Jan was withering.

One Easter dress shopping experience in 1986 changed everything.  Upon examination, I came to the conclusion all fancy toddler dresses were composed of four pieces of decorated material.  I said to myself, "Oh, please, how hard could it be to make one and save $70?"  I further rationalized my thinking.  "If it was bad, well, Sarah would outgrow it in three months, and I could get rid of it.  Thus started my sewing adventure.  Don't misunderstand.  I'm still a rudimentary sewer who finds putting in a zipper to be an adventure, but I'm game, and in my sewing world, there's always the trusty seam ripper and trying again, and again.

Sewing and by natural extension embroidery became my salvation nurtured along by the mind numbing repetitive nature of most of my other responsibilities.  Creating something from scratch gave me such a sense of personal satisfaction.  Working out difficulties during the process was just a bonus.  My fingers to this day linger over my successes and mistakes.  Those are trivial compared to the a bone deep feeling of pride in the process of production and the accomplishment of completion.

The reason the GH sewing essay hit home was I'd just finished my latest project.  I made a bag which incorporated a piece of embroidery I'd done more than a few years ago.  Is it perfect?  No!  Absolutely not!  Did I learn a whole bunch about bag construction?  You bet.  Am I proud of it.  Oh, yes.  Here it is - my latest creative urge which has been just as satisfying at age 65 as that first baby dress when I was 36.

Hand embroidered pocket on Jacquard canvas tote bag

Interior lined in poly silk with multiple pockets

        

Your Spring Training Report from the Texas Rangers Camp

Spring Training is in full swing, so this entry is for my Texas Ranger baseball fans - which should be EVERYBODY.  Yes, I know, the last snippet was one of those fanatic statements of which sports people are guilty.  And, yes, thanks to my upbringing and Drake's baseball fanaticism, I am a sports person.  The best thing about baseball is the pace and watching it with someone who is so knowledgeable.  Oh, and you can do other stuff like read, write and embroider when it's on TV.

The American League West this year will be decided by injuries.  Every team, except poor Oakland, can contend for the division this year, but the runner-up will not have a good enough record to catch on as a wild card team.  Since the talent is so close on each team, it is important to get off to a good start.  The Rangers have the second best record in the Cactus League at the halfway point of Spring Training.

The AL West pitchers are the second factor which will decide the division.  As we Ranger fans can tell you, losing ANYONE in the starting pitching rotation can spell disaster.  Here's how the Ranger starters are shaping up:  Darvish is just now starting to 'toss', but I don't expect him to be 'in form' until after the All Star break.  Lewis looks good; right on schedule.  Holland is still a 'wild card'.  Drake just has this little nagging doubt since he really hasn't pitched for almost two years.  Hamels should be Cole Hamels.  The really good news is Martin Perez is looking very sharp.  Nicky Martinez, Chi Chi Rodriguez, and Nick Tepesch are all competing for the last starting spot - each has had sparkling and disastrous outings.  Tepesch is now officially lagging behind.  He's had two bad outings.  We watched him last night give up five runs in one inning effectively giving up the game.

Other than the last starting pitcher, left field and a utility infielder as well as some of the relief pitchers are the only 'open spots' on the Ranger club.  We couldn't understand why Jon Daniels bought Ian Desmond, a strong hitting shortstop for $8 million.  He's a former all-star shortstop of the Nationals.  He hasn't played a single game in the infield; instead, they have been converting him to be an outfielder.  He's practically started every game at left field, and now, he's going to be tried out in center field.  (Last night he started in center and made an error.)

Well, the deal is this:  Desmond's a great RIGHT HANDED hitter, and an natural athlete.  We need right handed hitters.  Plus, the rumor is the team is going to carry an extra pitcher, so Desmond, who can spell Odor and Elvis, becomes an even bigger asset. There's also Ciriaco, a 30 year old player,  who can play every position except pitcher and catcher, and he's looked really good this spring. He's been around the league, but just hasn't managed to really 'catch on' anyplace.  I would have to say the best quasi rookie with a shot at the team is Ryan Rua.  He's hitting gangbusters, can play the outfield with ease, and is even getting a try-out at first base.  Last year he made the club and promptly broke his foot.

Of course, Josh Hamilton is still in the mix - but hasn't played an inning this Spring - a bum knee.  You either love or hate Josh, so I'm not going to argue for or against him. He's aging out, but can be brilliant still in short bursts.  Unfortunately, the bursts aren't predictable.  We'll see.  As long as the Angels are paying for him, we'll use him.

Elvis looks good.  Odor strained one of his oblique muscles, and while he says he's 100%, we haven't seen him on the field in more than a week.  Fielder is hitting, and Beltre looks indestructible.  DeShields is also playing quite well.  Choo looks like he did in the second half of last year.  We finally understood why Daniels paid him so much.  I would say the 'regulars' are doing their work and all came to Spring Training in shape and ready to play.

As to up and comers:  Until Joey Gallo learns to hit inside junk, and actually play a position with authority, it's Triple A for him again this year.  I've seen him hit some incredibly long home runs, and in the next at bat look quite bad.  I'm much more sold on Nomar Mazara, a young outfielder (age 20?) who looks great at the plate.  He won't make the team this year, but he just gets better and better.  There's a new kid in camp called Ryan Cordell, age 23, who played AA last year in Frisco.  He's an outfielder who can also play 3rd and shortstop - although, we haven't seen him in the infield.  Big, tall, fast, and looks very good at the plate.  I think they wanted to see him hit against some major league pitching, and he's done well.   Juricksen Profar is healed after a two year shoulder injury.  He's looked good in Spring Training.  Drake has speculated that Profar will be in AAA to see if that shoulder will hold up to everyday play.  It's going to be interesting to see what Jon Daniels does with him.  Hanser Alberto, an incredible infielder, who can play multiple positions, is also knocking at the major league door, and Drake thinks he's possible trade bait.

Our farm system is just chock full of great looking young players.  One of the really fun parts of Spring Training is getting to watch these players.  It's comforting to know there's talent waiting in the wings to come up and sub when the inevitable injuries strike the club.

That's about it from Surprise.  The crowds have been much bigger this year because of the Division win last year.  This past week as well as next week is what I call Spring Break time.  The stands are full of elementary school kids coming to Spring Training during their break from school.  That would have been Drake's idea of a heavenly vacation when he was 10 years old.  Oh, wait a minute!  Now, Drake gets to be 10 years old every Spring.  That's your inside look at the 2016 Rangers from your own Spring Training reporter.

Here Comes St. Patrick's Day

We're coming up to what I always assumed was a made up holiday, St. Patrick's Day, but, no, the holiday's actual origin is a Roman Catholic church feast day for the patron saint of Ireland (Saint Patrick) who died on March 17, 461.  Ironically, he wasn't Irish, but rather he was born in Roman Britain, kidnapped, sold into slavery and transported to what is modern day Ireland.  He escaped to Gaul (France), entered a monastery and converted to Christianity.  He returned to Ireland as a missionary.  Christianity was actually very widespread at that point, but Patrick did confront the remaining Druids and ran them out of Dodge along with their pagan rites.  Legend has it Missionary Patrick used the Irish shamrock to explain the Christian Trinity to the peasant population.  (I don't know what he did when a mutant four leaf shamrock popped up.)

It really wasn't until the Irish began immigrating out of Ireland did secular celebrations of St. Patrick's Day begin.  Eighteenth century Irish who fought in the Revolutionary War held the first St. Paddy day parades.  Turning the holiday into a celebration of being Irish was a way for immigrants to stay connected to their roots. Parades and post parade parties were also a way to say, "We're here; deal with it."

A flood of Irish left the homeland because of the potato famine in the 1840's.  Irish in great numbers appeared in Newfoundland, the United States, and also New Zealand and Australia as a direct result of the famine.  The immigration numbers were so high in the United States that today 34 million people claim Irish ancestry.  That's almost one in ten.  190,000 Irish Americans fought in the Civil War (out of 2.75 million soldiers).  There were nine Irish signers of the Declaration of Independence.

Integrating Irish culture by the in place American population was an early example of how we embrace elements of an immigrant culture and make them our own.  So, everyone, Irish or not, has joined in the idea of having or attending a fun parade, wearing green, pinching those who don't, having a party, sort of believing the four leaf shamrock (clover) is 'lucky' and drinking green beer.

The way I look at it is this:  We just finished celebrating the Chinese New Year.  It's the year of the Red Monkey, incidentally. If you are lucky, you'll go to a Mardi Gras parade and catch something thrown from a float, and even luckier if you get to eat some real Cajun food.   Next week we will be 'wearing the green' for St. Patrick's Day which will set us up for Cinco de Maya.  Those parades will be followed not by green beer, but by those tasty margaritas.  We then sashay right into the 4th of July with barbecue and hamburgers followed by fireworks.  Now, do we know how to do holidays or what?  We may not have invented "Eat, Drink and be Merry", but we sure know how to do it.  

How About Leaping into a New Time?

It's a pity I already have a husband because today is the traditional day when women ask men to marry them.  Yes, one of the many bizarre things spawned by February 29th is the idea if the world is going to hell in the proverbial hand basket, as evidenced by the newfangled Gregorian  Calendar adopted in 1582 with its extra added day every four years, well, then women might as well behave like men!  This was the premise of a popular British play poking fun at the new calendar adoption.  The idea took hold in Britain evolving into Bachelor's Day in England and Sadie Hawkin's Day in the United States.  In actuality, February 29th was added to the Gregorian calendar to keep the calendar synchronized with the solar seasons.

You have a 1 in 1461 chance of becoming a leapling:  the name for babies born on February 29th, and, therefore, have a birthday only once every four years.  We actually have a friend who has a due date of today.  I'm pretty sure the baby is going to pass this day by as a birthday since the mom's mother was 'late' with both her kiddos.  Generally speaking, you bake babies about in the same fashion and amount of time as your mother.  Forty weeks is just an average.

Much more interesting to me is the idea the Gregorian Calendar has served its purpose. Lots has happened in world since 1582.  The most significant is the world is now completely and virtually instantaneously connected.  Al Gore's information highway is a monster freeway of astounding proportions upon which zooms mankind at a rate unable to even be conceived by Pope Gregory XIII.

Seizing upon that fact, two scientists, Richard Henry and Stephen Hanke, professors at John Hopkins University, have decided the early Renaissance calendar we all operate under needs to be consigned to the rubbish heap.  They have designed the Hanke-Henry Permanent Calendar.  (Frankly, I think 'permanent' is a little arrogant.  I'm sure Julius Caesar thought HIS calendar was permanent too.)

Here are the H/H calendar highlights:  January, February, April, May, July, August, October and November all have 30 days.  March, June, September, and December all have 31 days.  While the length of certain months change, the days of the week stay exactly the same - from year to year.  Thus, all the three holy days of the week (Friday, Saturday, Sunday) all occur in the same place as always.

Furthermore, each date falls exactly on the same day of the week every year.  For example, in the H/H calendar, Christmas Day and New Year's Day are always on Sunday.  Every five or six years there's an 'Xtra Week' added to the calendar - again that pesky solar synchronization - beginning the end of December.  Jackpot!  An extra week of holiday festivities works for me.  Institutional and business scheduling is consistent from one year to the next since each year the days all fall on the same date.  Countless man hours re-calculating everything from year to year to set schedules would vanish.  Mortgage and interest calculations just got simpler and more fair.  So far, so good.  The H/H calendar sounds like a no-brainer to me.

Wait a minute!  What happens if you have a May 31st birthday!  Well, according to H/H, get over it and change your birthday to May 30th.  Boy, are these guys naive. Have you ever tried to change the date of your birthday?  I tried when I was 19 just for fun and because I wanted the opal to be my birthstone.  I decided I wanted my birthday to be October 2nd instead of September 25th.  People like my parents and my friends were outraged!  How dare I!  My birthday was my birthday, and I was stuck with it.  What I wanted didn't matter.  Additionally, I've never understood why those folks born on Christmas Day or Thanksgiving Day don't just change their birthday to a nice day in May or June, however; I've never met a person with a Christmas birthday who did it.  Oh, and I won't even mention Halloween, which under H/H no longer exists.

For me the real problem facing the adoption of this calendar is the elimination of 'Time Zones' around the world. That's the adjunct proposal for the adoption of the H/H Permanent Calendar.  By abolishing Time Zones and adopting UTC (Universal Time Coordinated), it would be the same time everywhere on the globe.  Thus, if you work in California and do lots of business in New York, you don't have to arrive at work at 6:00 am Pacific Time to reach people who have just started their work day at 9:00 am Eastern Time.  Imagine the boon for people who do business, have family, or need to communicate in real time with people on the other side of the globe if it was the same time everywhere.

Let me give you a glimpse of life on UTC.  It's currently 3:00 pm in the afternoon, Mountain Standard Time (or Arizona [we don't believe in Daylight Savings] Time).  It's also 10:00 pm. Universal Time Coordinated (UTC) which is seven hours later than Mountain Standard Time.  Now, remember, a 'clock' as well as the system of Time Zones are artificial means to measure time.  So, if I'm using Universal Coordinated Time where the time for everyone all over the world is the same, the sun rose in Arizona this morning at approximately 2:00 pm.   Hmmm.  I'd be getting up at 2:30 pm, headed for my workday which starts at 4pm and quitting time, after an eight hour day, would be midnight.  I think we'd have to redefine what hours constitute morning, afternoon and evening and definitely use a clock based on 24 hours instead of 12 eliminating AM and PM.

Obviously, to reap the rewards of UTC everywhere, we'd definitely need an International Conference to hammer out the details like the International Conference on Time in 1884 did.  As time keeping became more standardized and based on longitude and latitude, the International Conference on Time in 1884 adopted the Greenwich Observatory outside of London as the site of the prime meridian (the zero degree longitude) - the line upon which all time around the world would be calculated - and thus, the time zones around the world were created. Each time zone is plus or minus so many hours from the Greenwich Observatory.    (I always wondered exactly what the prime meridian was, didn't you?)

This place was chosen to designate the zero longitude for time calculation because the Greenwich Observatory was acknowledged world wide as being the most accurate at keeping exact time, and also because the British were doing the most world wide commerce.  Today, the UTC is calculated from the Greenwich Observatory (0 degree longitude) using some atomic calculation.  (I'm done - the nutshell is you can figure your UTC time based on Greenwich Time - in Arizona, I'm seven hours earlier than UTC.)  

What would an International Time Conference in 2016 have to work out?  First, are we going to adopt the H/H Calendar world wide.  There's a growing movement to do just that.  Second, we'd have to jettison the idea the clock is tied to the sun.  We'd still want to work during daylight hours and sleep during the dark, but our notion of what clock time constitutes morning, afternoon and evening would be radically different.

It all sounds really strange, doesn't it?  However, did you know several institutions are already using UTC?  All aviators use UTC to avoid the problem of is it AM or PM as well as eliminating those time zones they whiz through.  They call UTC 'Zulu Time' which is much more catchy, don't you think?  The national weather service uses UTC as well as world wide computer systems.

This is all just too much for me.  I think I'll just have a Leap Year cocktail invented by Harry Craddock, renowned bartender, at the London Savoy Hotel in 1928, and go internet shopping for Leap Year deals offered only on the 29th of February.  Perhaps Jet Blue will reinstate it's February 29th special fare of $29 again.  Happy Leap Year Day!            

Happy V Day

If there was ever a minefield holiday, it's Valentine's Day.  You start picking your way across it while still in elementary school.  Who can ever forget the white paper lunch bags sitting like little sentinels on each desk.  Right before recess, everyone was supposed to drop their valentine for each person in the class into each bag.   The Valentine Day bags were decorated with crayons (1st, and 2nd grade), construction paper hearts (3rd and 4th grade), and then, beginning in the 5th grade, you had to decorate at home and bring it in.  Boys reverted back to one hastily drawn crayon heart with their name under it while for girls, this was the first fashion statement. Those valentine bags were precursors to wearing the right or wrong outfit to the first day of junior high school.

If the teacher was unvigilant, the unpopular kids in class would find their bags woefully short of valentines, while the most popular girls started getting REAL valentine cards as early at the 4th grade.  The rest of us had to content ourselves with punch-out valentines, 36 to a box.  Those flimsy cards with images of Mighty Mouse, Popeye, Bugs Bunny, Sleeping Beauty, (the Disney cartoon princess of 1959), Yogi Bear, the Flintstones, or the Jetsons rested in an untidy heap in the bottom of each bag together with suckers, Smartees, Double Bubble, Tootsie Roll pops, or the ever popular miniature box of chalky, candy hearts stamped with shorthand love sentiments in red dye #7.  Moms didn't care about sugar consumption at school.  It was all about being able to fill each bag in the class with a cheap piece of candy.  My most unexpected valentine bag item was in the 5th grade. I pulled out an actual piece of jewelry (pink rhinestone heart necklace) from Stanley somebody.  That year was the ONLY year I ran with the popular girls. Why or how that happened is still a mystery to me.

In junior high, white bags vanished, teachers dropped out of the equation, and valentine cards were shoved into locker vents. OK, again, shoved into the POPULAR girls' lockers.  Valentine popular seemed to equate to either breast development, or if you had a 'steady'.  At Eli Whitney Junior High, a steady was a boy you held hands with when you walked in the hallways before school. At age 13, steadies could change daily. Some girls, like me, were still playing with Barbie dolls and paper dolls, albeit with the door closed, so no one would know.  I sensed I shouldn't still be playing with dolls, but in the 7th grade I found them more fun than boys.

When high school rolled around, Valentine's Day became SERIOUS BUSINESS.  If you had a boyfriend, he was expected to deliver the goods preferably at school in front of your friends.  There were heart shaped boxes of candy, bouquets of flowers, large stuffed animals, bracelets, necklaces, and if you were a Senior, the possibility of a Valentine's Day engagement ring (seriously!).  Good grief!  What were we thinking.

Think being married gets you off the Valentine's Day hook?  Hardly.  The minefield explosions of Valentine's Day just get bigger.  About the only difference between today and yesteryear is it's now a two way street.  Men expect acknowledgements of love as well as women.  While Drake doesn't care a whit about any holiday, much less one which he has dark suspicions the greeting card/floral companies dreamed up, woe be it to him if he 'forgets'.  And in my holiday crazed brain, a card just doesn't cut it.

So.....Happy Valentine's Day.  I just hope you make it through without blowing yourself up.            

The Era of Discard

No, I don't mean discord, I mean DISCARD.  Currently, we are being not so subtly encouraged by the car industry to discard our automobile.  After all, it's 13 years old, and as everyone knows, you should have a newer car than that.   If you don't believe me, try to buy parts for an older car.  We need engine mounts.  There are no Lincoln Aviator engine mounts to be had anywhere in this country, neither genuine parts, after market parts, or salvage parts.  The Ford dealership just waved bye, bye to us, don't let the door hit you on the ass on the way out.  A small business car mechanic is currently trying to jerry-rig a set from some almost one size fits all engine mounts. Jury is still out whether or not this will work.

It started me thinking about how many machines we currently discard because they need a bit of repair:  Computers, televisions, clocks, watches, toasters, coffee makers, toaster ovens, curling irons, flat irons, hair dryers, irons, sewing machines, typewriters (obsolescence, there), mixers, along with one function appliances like juicers, bread makers, ricers, fry-daddies, mamas and babies, electric grills, waffle makers, electric fry pans, fondue pots, and a dozen others.  Then, there are the big ticket items like:  stoves, dishwashers, refrigerators, microwaves, and, of course, cars.

At least there's a salvage system for cars.  I did a cursory internet search to see if there was a salvage system for small appliances.  Nope.  Not one that readily popped up.  In Sun City we have a healthy re-sale market for small appliances that still WORK, but nothing for the coffee maker that doesn't heat anymore, or the iron whose only functional setting is linen.  You can't take your hair dryer (or any other small appliance) to anyone and have it fixed.  In the 1950's you could still get products repaired at your local repair shop which was sometimes a storefront in the local hardware store.  There was a guy who worked on toasters and percolators and yes, hair dryers as well as any other small appliance.  You brought it in, and he fixed it.

As cheap labor allowed cheap goods to flood the United States market beginning with 'Made in Japan' stamped on the bottom of thousands of products after WWII, we began to discard rather than repair because it was cheaper to simply 'buy a new one'. Manufacturing of actual goods now belongs to Chinese labor, and now the 'cheaper to buy a new one' is firmly ingrained in our psyche.

If you are a recycler, reuser, or part of the 'second hand market', well, more power to you.  Even better if you are a repairer.  Drake has saved many a cherished item around our household because he was willing to 'open it up'.  In our remodel, we re-purposed and rehabbed one bathroom vanity, gave away one entire set of bathroom fixtures to a neighbor who is going to install our bathroom discards in her bathroom, and then donated the rest to a building materials recycle store front.

We kept one of our previous cars for seventeen years (yes, my faithful blue Volvo), and we're planning on keeping Goldie, the Aviator, for as long as we are towing the trailer around the country.  So, get ready, car mechanics, because we are going to be calling on your ingenuity and repair skills to keep us running.