No Fun Buying Appliances

This week our clothes dryer went kaput. I called Sears to arrange a repair appointment. After being on hold for an extended period of time, the phone line went dead. Somehow I lost my connection. I then went on the web to sears.com and tried to schedule an appointment. The next available appointment was Monday October 8th. We decided that wasn't quick enough for our needs. The broken down dryer is a Maytag that we've had for some 20 years. It has been dependable for all of those years until now. Where is the Maytag repairman when you need him? He's nowhere to be found!

We decided to "look" at dryers at Sears on Monday evening. When Jan says, "Let's look", that pretty much indicates that we're buying. It's like when you tell a child "Maybe", in the eyes of a child that means "Yes". Of course I headed to the least expensive models first. "Hey it says here this one is on sale for $50.00 off". It was a Whirlpool gas dryer. It seemed like a fair price until everything was totaled up. It's an extra $65.00 for a gas versus electric dryer, another $40.00 for the vent kit, $65.00 for delivery and another $10.00 for the disposal of the old unit. That's an additional $180.00 before taxes. Talk about sticker shock! The actual retail price is always much higher than the sticker price.

The last time I bought tires for my car I had the same feeling. After you add up the tire, mounting/balancing, and disposal of the old tires and multiply by 4, the cost becomes unreal.

Well, I'm happy to report that we now have a new dryer. It even has a light inside the drum! It is a lot more efficient than the old Maytag. Hopefully it will be another 20 years before we have to buy another major appliance. Yeah, right!

Remembering CKLW

A few weeks ago I was driving to Michigan to visit my son and daughter-in-law. Since I was travelling solo, I began station surfing on the radio. I was able to receive only three AM stations. WLEC (the local station), WJR in Detroit and CKLW in Windsor. CKLW was carrying the Michigan-Oregon football game so I settled for that offering. I normally listen to music when travelling, however the game sounded exciting and I figured it would help me pass the time. I also wanted to see if Michigan's loss to Apalachian State was a fluke. Oregon went on to upset Michigan. It was apparent that the Wolverines still had a hangover from the previous upset loss. For years WJR carried the Michigan football games. A couple of years ago WJR started broadcasting Michigan State games so Michigan moved to CKLW.

My how times have changed! Growing up in the 60's, CKLW was the staple for teenagers. When you "buzzed" the ave, you had your radio tuned to the Big 8 CKLW. With their 50,000 watts of power, CKLW could be heard clearly far and wide. They played mostly Top 40 records and Motown music. Teenagers were attracted to the Big 8 because they played feel good, sing-a-long type music. Unlike today, CKLW broad casted very few commercials. I can remember a few of the commercials. Detroit Dragway "Drag Capital of Mid America" and Mickey Shores car stereos stick in my head. The commercials always seemed to be entertaining. They also featured short news briefs every 20 minutes. The news briefs usually started out with alliteration such as "A badly burned bruised body was found on the East side of Detroit".
Yes, times have certainly changed. Even FM radio stations play less music. Most stations have changed over to a talk show format. Perhaps that is the reason that satellite radio continues to gain popularity among radio listeners.
Whatever the case, good, free radio is a thing of the past. There never will be another CKLW in our lifetime. We can only have fond memories of the past.

Anonymous Postings

Why do people choose to post comments on blogs without stating who they are? My last entry, Bumper Stickers and Window Clings struck the nerve of one individual. The person chose to "hide behind the curtain" and called me resentful without giving any specific reason why they felt that way. My blog contains my opinions and how I see and feel about everyday events. Resentful? No, not resentful, merely writing how I see things. You don't have to agree with me, but use common courtesy and either state your name or e-mail me with your thoughts. I will not reply to anonymous postings. By the way, I am able to track any/all postings, so I have a pretty good idea who the anonymous posters are. In the future, all anonymous comments will be deleted by the administrator.