Everything has a life expectancy, from vegetation to animals, humans included, to mechanical devices. Two of our electrical appliances reached the end of their lives. The first was our dishwasher. It died last fall, and our daughter told us to replace it before Thanksgiving.

We did; we just never had it installed. It sat in our shop and Brice washed dishes every morning; in a little over an hour everything was sparkling. If we host a holiday meal, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, New Year’s Eve, or Easter, our daughter and her husband will come over and, on occasion, have washed dishes.

I have special plates for Christmas that require hand washing, as does the silver plate and crystal. And I sometimes use my mother-in-law's large set of gold lined dishes for other holidays. All these dishes require hand washing.

When the refrigerator died last week, something had to be done sooner rather than later. Brice went to Baker and came home with a small replacement; Brice and I don’t need any bells and whistles, just a little ice, space for ice cream and room to cool food.

A young man came to the house, installed the refrigerator, and dishwasher. If he’d had more time, Brice might have asked him to take out the window air conditioner. We need to have it out before Thanksgiving.

Looking to get help with that, Brice asked our neighbor for his help, and the air conditioner was out and quickly into the shop. Good neighbors are priceless, particularly as we get older.

That air conditioner was payment for a banner ad in the newspaper when a man asked a woman to marry him. That’s been many years ago, and the air conditioner continues to cool us.

Our daughter tells us we need a new cook stove; it came with the house when we bought it 29 years ago. It’s a gas range, our preferred type of stove. Although it shows its age, it works well.

The saying goes. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” We won’t.