In 68years of housekeeping together whenever we bought a new appliance, we would carefully take all the paperwork, from invoice to product literature and place them in order of purchase in a folder for future reference. Future reference as in knowing when the product was bought, whether the warranty had expired, from which store it had been bought, and sometimes just to check the length of time it had been in our possession working hard to make our lives easier.

I was certain our Whirlpool dishwasher was no more than two years old, taking the place of our old Kenmore that had performed admirably for 15 years. The Whirlpool was a step up, presumably, in quality, impressive interior of stainless steel, an engineer's pride of alternate settings. I soon missed my reliable old Kenmore, and considered the Whirlpool to have been a poor replacement. It wasn't designed as well as its predecessor, had too many useless settings, one of which was labelled 'normal' but the cycle lasted a full 3-1/2 hours. The 'normal' cycle was an energy-saver. I set it permanently to a 1-hour wash. But it hardly mattered what and how long the wash cycle was, the rinse-and-dry setting meant to completely dry everything, never worked. Withdrawing washed items always meant partially drying them by hand afterward.

 

Then this almost-new appliance began leaking. Intermittently, from time to time, not much water, and it was always the rinse cycle. We had taken an extended warranty on it, as we usually do with these large home appliances. It seems the motor itself is at fault and will have to be replaced. This is a 'bad time' to call upon services like repair technicians since it's also Easter. I'll be washing dishes by hand, not only the breakfast dishes but those for dinner and all the pots and pans for quite a while it seems. Good thing I don't really mind all that much.

 

To lighten the flavour of that annoyance, we've had an absolutely perfect spring day. The morning freezing temperature swiftly rose through the hours to follow, partially thanks to the sun sending its brilliance through the house and the backyard as well. It felt so mild I went out with Jackie and Jillie a few times to the backyard without putting on a jacket. Just boots, in view of the still-snow-packed mounds that Jillie doggedly clambers up because she refuses to pee where there's no snow. 

 

We took them out to the ravine for a leisurely hike through the forest. The mild weather and the force of the sun has made mush of the forest trails. A little more exercise than usual required to clamber up those slush-piled hillsides. The atmosphere bright and benign, nothing could possibly diminish the pleasure of being out with the puppies. An attitude and feeling certainly not universal; most of our neighbours who have lived on our street as long as we have, have never ventured into the ravine despite its presence right behind their backyards.