The other day I wrote about my frustrations over our microwave oven. My frustrations continue, but with a new slant.

As I mentioned, when the oven quit, we both automatically figured it was "planned obsolescence" so we looked on line, found a new one we could live with and ordered it. It should be delivered on Wednesday.

Then, because everything anyone ever wants to know about anything can usually be found by Googling it, Fred did some searching on line about our problem, got some ideas and while I was busy at my computer, started tinkering on it. I went to the kitchen after a while and he'd taken the door apart, found out a little spring had broken and that was what engaged to make everything work. The on-line instructions were pretty straightforward that it was the plastic that usually breaks on that particular type latch. The plastic on ours looked ok, but when I looked at the spring, I could see no way to make it work, so we began looking for a replacement. Fred called a couple of hardware stores - Willey's in Greensboro said they had several but we'd have to bring in the old one to be sure it was the right one. We agreed we'd take a ride up there on Sunday - it's a nice ride and always fun to visit Willey's.

I came back to my computer and supposed Fred was putting tools away, or putting the oven back together temporarily - there were sounds, but I wasn't paying attention. Some time later, I heard a familiar beep that sounded like the oven. Fred had patiently worked to get that little spring back in place - probably only a temporary fix, we know, but at least everything works!!

Now the spring is back in place, we don't have it to take to Willey's to get a replacement, but Fred called the Sharp company with the model number of our oven thinking it would be easy to get a replacement that would be exactly right. After dozens of questions and being transferred to a couple different departments, he was told "that parts aren't readily available and someone will call you on Monday." We weren't convinced.

I wouldn't have thought to do this, but Fred went back on line and found the exact part, including the plastic part that the first information we got indicated would likely break. All for under $10. It was from an oven like ours that had something else go wrong and the owner had rescued that part before tossing the rest of the oven. Amazing.

Through all of this, I'm thinking - I wonder how many people did just what we did and toss out appliances when really there's nothing seriously wrong with them - or because the "parts aren't readily available"? I'm embarrassed we were almost did just that. Not too many years ago it was commonplace to repair machinery that didn't work, and there were plenty of people who did that. I remember on interesting elderly man who lived out on Elm Street in Montpelier that we used to take all sorts of appliances to and he could almost always fix them. He called himself a factotem.

Back then we didn't throw anything away without at least trying to repair it first. Now it's difficult to find anyone to repair small appliances, and even harder to find parts if something breaks, especially if you've had it a few years. It's a throw-away society. I'm really glad Fred had the patience and know-how to fix our oven. I won't be so quick to give up on something that breaks again.

We both laughed that we probably should have called Jamie, our son. Jamie doesn't throw anything away. He built a working Jeep by combining various parts of junked vehicles and uses it every winter to plow snow. It's called "The Peach." He does the same with guitars, motorcycles and electronics - and always has some project he's working on.
So there are a few "tinkerers" left, Including Fred.