So it goes...

Last weekend I woke up and my phone didn't. It was dead. Kaput. Bricked. The night before, when I tried to access it, it would shut off as quickly as I turned it on. It was behaving badly. Facebook was wonky too. It would open, then close saying "Sorry, Facebook can't start," or some such message of hopelessness. It was a nearly 4 year old Samsung Galaxy S6. I loved the phone, it rarely gave me problems and despite a battery that died halfway through the day, it worked pretty flawlessly. I had the oldest phone in my family, so was due for an upgrade anyway. Now, understand that I have a love/hate relationship with these things, more hate than love, frankly. I think as a culture we've created devices of distraction and disconnection. There is a wonderful photo journalism article in The Sun magazine by Gianpaolo La Paglia that captures peoples' obsessions with their phones quite well. I feel that we've gone down a path we can't get back up...

For Sale: Bosch Dishwasher.   November, 2013 model Low miles High customer dissatisfaction rating Runs okay from time to time Starts and finishes in 2 minutes from time to time Infuriates wife and spouse from time to time Super quiet - usually brought on by the 2 minute cycle mentioned above New owner must prove access to mental therapist and clean and sober for 3 years prior Willing to sell for a case of microbrewed beer  Also willing to trade for a 10 year old "Best Buy cheapie" that works I don't usually bash products online, but this particular dishwasher, a Bosch Ascenta Evolution model , deserves special treatment. It appears we got a lemon, as the unit has given us problems for the two years we've owned it and is showing no signs of letting up. Here's what happens. Unit is turned on Pump drains existing water for  25 seconds Water starts to fill unit for 15 seconds Clean light comes on! And believe me, they're not clean at ...