{"id":4887,"date":"2017-02-19T16:57:30","date_gmt":"2017-02-19T21:57:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/?p=4887"},"modified":"2017-02-19T19:15:30","modified_gmt":"2017-02-20T00:15:30","slug":"365139-doing-good-can-be-hard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/365139-doing-good-can-be-hard\/","title":{"rendered":"365+#140: Doing good can be hard"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Days-365139-mixer.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-4889\" src=\"http:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Days-365139-mixer-150x150.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Days-365139-mixer-150x150.gif 150w, https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Days-365139-mixer-768x774.gif 768w, https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Days-365139-mixer-1015x1024.gif 1015w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>My last blog entry was on the pros &amp; cons of online shopping and how it can save time but create unnecessary waste. Here\u2019s another conundrum for you \u2013 When does doing a small good take so much time that it\u2019s not worth it?<br \/>\n<strong>The culprit:<\/strong> a broken mixer blade<br \/>\n<strong>The solution:<\/strong>\u00a0Buy a replacement blade.<br \/>\n<strong>The problem:<\/strong> It\u2019s not as quick and easy as it sounds.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The rest of the story<\/strong>: Last Christmas, in an effort to be a loving sister I decided to make homemade chocolate chip cookies for my out of town brother. I used a 50+ year old Sunbeam electric mixer that had been handed down to me by my mother-in-law. It had been working fine. Unfortunately, cooking is not my strength and in the process I stupidly broke one of the mixer blades. I limped along, substituting a portable mixer which was not nearly as strong. I finished the batch of cookies, mailed them, but realized it did not reflect my best work.<\/p>\n<p>Since I wanted to keep the mixer and virtuously wanted to repair it rather than scrap it, I decided to do what any modern cook would do:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I spent an hour searching Amazon for a replacement beater. Having no luck there, I took the next reasonable step &#8211;<\/li>\n<li>I googled &#8220;Sunbeam mixer&#8221; and found a \u201cLive Chat.\u201d Since my internet search skills must not be much better than my cooking skills, I tried 3 times to connect with the Live Chat with no response.<\/li>\n<li>I finally found a phone number for Sunbeam and after being on hold for 10 minutes learned, \u201cIf it\u2019s over 20 years old, we can\u2019t fix it, BUT we suggest you call\u00a0Kiefer Appliances.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Kiefer Appliances (608) 221-3322, deserves a shout out since a live person answered the phone, told me how to find the \u201chidden\u201d model number, and said he had a replacement beater in stock. I bought it for much less than a new mixer would cost.<\/li>\n<li>Result: I feel good that I could save an old (and very serviceable) mixer but frustrated that it took so much time.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>News Flash:<\/strong> Now this may be simply a longer than necessary story which does you no immediate good. So, let me share some useful news that I learned along the way that may help folks no matter what kind of repair job you are faced with. Did you know that there are \u201cRepair Cafes?\u201d Read this <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/tinyurl.com\/z3sk9ct\">New York Times article<\/a><\/strong> about how beloved but broken possessions find new life.<\/p>\n<p>Thoughts to ponder:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Do you have any experiences of rescuing a broken item? (Please comment below.)<\/li>\n<li>How much time do you invest before calling it quits and buying something new<\/li>\n<li>And the age-old, probably unanswerable question \u2013 How come they don\u2019t make things last as long as they used to (think appliances, phones, computers, etc.)?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My last blog entry was on the pros &amp; cons of online shopping and how it can save time but create unnecessary waste. Here\u2019s another conundrum for you \u2013 When does doing a small good take so much time that it\u2019s not worth it? The culprit: a broken mixer blade The solution:\u00a0Buy a replacement blade. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[18],"class_list":["post-4887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-days-365","tag-kitchen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4887"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4887\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4893,"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4887\/revisions\/4893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}