Murphy was an optimist.

Yesterday our washing machine died.

This sort of thing usually happens in the holiday season. It is the universe's way of being mischievous. Our neighbours' hot water service died, too. Miraculously she found a plumber. (Reminds me of the Woody Allen joke: "Not only is there no God, but try finding a plumber on Sunday.")

Murphy's Law states that "if something can go wrong, it will."
Kennedy's Corollary says that it it is going to go wrong, it will do it on a holiday.

Anyway we had an unplanned visit to the local electrical warehouse and bought a new one. It should be delivered on Monday.

Today, by accident, I found the receipt for the old one.

The old machine was bought in 1990, so it lasted well. What surprised me was the price. The replacement machine is fancier than the original one (though same maker) and, after 17 years, was only 13.9% more expensive than the original machine.

That's a price growth of 0.8% a year.

Pretty impressive, really.

◊◊◊

If I have a concern about the new machine, it is that it uses much less water. While this is good in a global sense, I use the water on my garden. Does this mean I will need to do more washing?
...