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Friday, March 11, 2011

Mechanical Friends

Today I spent a good amount of time in my kitchen, cleaning things up for in prep for Pop-Pop's visit to watch the kids tomorrow, so Mom and Dad can have a date.  While I was cleaning, I began thinking about my appliances.  I have to give props to my coffee maker.  It was gifted to me when my youngest son was born, six years ago.  It has had things spilled on it (cord and all), it has survived a bumpy move cross country, been poked and pulled on by my kids, and still serves up a delicious pot (or two) of caffeine heaven every morning without complaint.  Which leads me to wonder, why can't all appliances be so reliable?
Next I moved onto my stove.  It proudly displays "Self-Cleaning" and since I have normally had gas stoves, I haven't ever used this self-clean function, and only a little ashamedly, don't even know what I need to do beside push the button.  Seriously, how can my oven clean itself.  Moreover, why can't the darn thing clean off the stove-top for me too.  Now that would be a serious piece of equipment.
My cable service has been frustrating me for months, it keeps skipping in the middle of programming, sometimes not even showing me entire channels, and often shutting itself off to reload several times per hour.  Then, when I moved my living room furniture, I unhooked and rehooked up everything (to the same jack) and now it works perfectly.  How strange is that?  I wish I would have moved it a long time ago.
Toilets are a blessing too.  I was fortunate to have grown up in the era where we never had to use an outhouse, thank the force of all that is good.  With my son and myself being sick with stomach flu during the week, I really gave thought to how much I appreciate the person who invented the toilet.  Now if the bidet was only more popular in the U.S. we would be in business!
This is not to disclude any of my other mechanical devices that are working well lately, my computer (despite being prehistoric), my BlackBerry (despite being dropped multiple times onto hard tile, due to a bad choice in purses), my TV(probably my favorite posession, and multiple others.  I am just really happy that I live in an age where these things are obtainable, and that things are build to last.  Now, time for another cup of coffee!