I would love to have a friend like that.
I know as the economy has broken down, people are repairing things instead of throwing them out. I have to confess, in earlier times, if something in our house broke we would more than likely throw it out and go buy another one. Now we fix what ever it is or if it is practical, have someone else fix it. Our youngest son is an especially good handyman. He's also very willing to help his mom and dad out once in awhile. For instance, we really needed new shocks on our SUV, so I made some calls to shops to get an idea how much it would cost and just in passing mentioned it to him. He said "Mom, just go out and buy XXXXX brand of shocks at NAPA and I'll replace them for you." He saved us a bundle of money and I got to visit with him and my grandson while he replaced them. One of our 3 way lamps wasn't working right. If it had been an earlier time we might have just given it to goodwill and replaced it with a new one, but because I really like this lamp and we're trying to reduce our expenses, my hubby took it apart, and diagnosed the problem. It turned out one of the wires in the lamp socket wasn't seated properly (and wouldn't seat properly), so he picked a new part up at the hardware store yesterday and had it fixed within 15 minutes.
I remember the stories my grandmother used to tell me about the depression. How people made due and were very creative and resourceful. Since the economy took a nose dive, I can really empathize with those folks who lived through the Great Depression. |
