O.K., we had a brown awiss milk cow named Bess. If a cow can be called pretty or good looking , she was. Big soft brown eyes, long eyelashes and she had a good disposition. Placid and easy to milk. Never any problems with her behavior as compared to a Jersey that whose main purpose in life was to do just opposite what we wanted her to do. Bess was also an escape artist. Guess no one told her she was a herd animal. She always managed to get in the horsae pasture that shared a fence line with Vrbiskas, near their house. Little Betty, Bitsy, Lizzie or what ver her name was, probably Elizabeth wandered down tthe road between us almost a quarter mile. The road was seldom used, wasn't very good. When we went out we went south and they went north. When my step-mother saw Betty she wanted to let Vrbiskas know Betty was here. They had no phone. She sent sis bareback on her horse to tell them we would bring her home. The main purpose of the visit was tha Betty wanted to see Beth. Step-mother told her nobody here was named Beth. Betty lisped a little bit and finally one of us decided she wanted to see Bess. Step-mother sent sis out to the pasture to drive Bess up to the barn, well, all the rest of the cows came along too guess just to see what Bess was wanted for this time of day. Betty hugged Bess around the face, she wasn't tall enough to hug her around the neck and told her Beth, you are so pretty. Bess seemed to like the attention and at least twice more Betty came to see Beth. Dad thought that name was alright so we started calling the cow Beth. Betty always wore bib overalls and afte the session with the cow always had cow slobber on the bib. Sis would put her in front of her on her horse and take Betty, Bitsy, Lizzie home. A real tragedy occured with that family at a later time. May or may not post about that.

As someone who works on these things, I can tell you...the more things you want the appliance to do, the more things that can (and do) go wrong and the more it will cost to have it fixed. Your frustration concerning the choices of days passed and equipment these days extends right to the repair company. Where I used to keep in stock maybe 75 parts, I now have to keep 250. And with newer models every year, newer circuit boards and digital parts come along with that and adding to the stock goes up. As for extended warranties, I am very honest with my customers. If they use surge protectors where possible, the circuit boards (very costly part) have a higher survival rate and just as mentioned above, there are more frugal ways to get extended protection. You will be hard pressed to find a cost effective extended warranty that goes beyond 5 years. If you have an extended warranty, read it closely and you may find that there is a fixed amount allowed for the product within a fixed (usually 5 year) period. Each time you take advantage of the warranty, that fixed amount diminishes. One call for a logic part can come close to depleting that amount. It is true that most failures due to marginal parts will happen in the first or second year. But, just use and abuse takes it's toll over time. When I say abuse, understand I mean unintentional abuse. Opening and closing a door can cause a handle to come loose over time. That opening and closing is considered abuse, though non intentional. This is an electronic world and electronic parts are very touchy and have a very fixed expected life cycle.

cooperbailey, that would be me! Thanks for finding those lamps...I have been to Ballard a zillion times and never saw those. Even in my Google search those didn't come up. Thanks so much for finding them and letting me know.

Thanks for asking, Patti, I appreciate. Glad you missed me. I've been here, but mainly just reading and being quiet. Do say something every once in a while.