If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.  But what if everything is broken.  I don’t know about you but I’m sick and tired of calling repairmen to fix my appliances.  Repairs are throwing a wrench in my plans.

They don’t make appliances the way they used to.  I haven’t had a working washing machine for two weeks.  All I do is go to the laundromat.

I bought the washing machine about a year ago and it’s already leaking.  I took the extended service plan. Look where it got me. The appliance store sent a repairman from the company that made the machine.

The repairman broke the machine.  He blamed me for making him break it.  “If you didn’t insist that I fix it,” he said, “it wouldn’t have broken.”  He also scolded me for overloading the machine when he found a sock stuck in the pump.  He broke the entire inside drum of the machine and here’s what the box  looked like when the new part came.

The repairman conceded that they don’t make appliances the way that they used to.  He said appliances don’t last because they make them out of  plastic.   “You wouldn’t want to pay three times the price for steel parts would you?” he asked.   What is your time worth? I feel like a desperate housewife who needs an extended warranty that would cover patience for repairs.   It’s taken two weeks to schedule  appointments to have the machine fixed.  According to the most recent  Consumer Reports customer survey on electronics buying,  people who have a service plan are more likely to have repairs done wrong the first time and to wait at least two weeks for the repair.  I think mothers  bear the brunt of waiting for repairmen.  It’s always these four-hour service call windows. Can you imagine a mom trying to get away with that.  “Mom, when will dinner be ready?” your starving child pleads.  “Oh, sometime between 6:00-10:00p.m. depending on whether I have to make dinner for a child ahead of you?”

This year the fan broke in a bathroom, a kitchen faucet exploded, and an entire upstairs shower leaked through the living room ceiling for the second year in a row.  I had to have my floors redone this past summer because the dishwasher flooded the same kitchen floor that was just ruined by the leaking washing machine.  Now the front lawn was torn up by a snow plow that knocked over my mailbox.  My car engine died.  I had it fixed but the check engine light kept coming on.  I bought a new car this week.  It looks like I purchased a lemon. Before I  drove it off the lot, the service department had to squeeze me in for repairs. I’m driving a loaner.  No matter how you slice it, all of this is  leaving  a bitter taste in my mouth.  When life gives you lemons, make lemonade but be sure to substitute vodka for water.