Watch batteries .....well that was rather amusing...

@Poppies its a good question...when one stops working she goes and buys another - its like wire hangers in your closet they breed... Meanwhile giving them all back to her working ... seems to have aggravated her... she can wear a different one each day... my intent was just fix mine... and it cost way less money for 40 batteries as it would have going to the watch dealer to get one replaced here...I got 40 for $8... almost amusing by itself...

@pdqsailor1 @Poppies

The watches were not "old and dead" - that's the point. The watches are fine. All that had happened was their batteries were spent, as one should expect.

I expect Mrs. Pdqsailor was irritated at learning she had kept repeating the same basic mistake. No-one likes being shown they are wrong!

@ArishMell Perhaps partially - her fix was just buy a new watch...and she likes new stuff be it clothes, sunglasses, shoes, watches.. what I did was simple maintenance - which is going out of style in favour of shopping and a disposable culture... I just never figured I would irritate her by something as simple as replacing a battery...consumerism and disposability vs old school maintenance..

@pdqsailor1 Bit like that with my brother-in-law.

Their washing-machine broke down at the time I was establishing my own home. Rather than investigating it it can be repaired he went straight out and bought a new one, costing a £few-hundred. They offered me the broken one if I could repair it. Which I did, for just £25 for the parts needed: the pump and its motor..

My sister was glad I could use it but not impressed.with her husband!

@ArishMell I purchased a used European washing machine very inexpensively ... it has worked flawlessly for fifteen years so far.. another set I purchased - the washer stopped working... the brushes were worn on the motor - I ordered new ones from England which has an extensive spares network and they came promptly and economically via Royal Mail.. I got one more machine used.. I needed a water solenoid valve...ordered and installed it... Gave that one to my Mother who LOVES it...this one made in Italy.. Yes I love purchasing used machines and keeping them in good order - the older things were made better... I have a 1993 low miles Mercedes sedan... pristine condition car... I think its the finest car ever built and I am not alone in my assessment of this...The car is a cult classic...our family sailboat...is only 52 years old... in perfect shape and fully modernized and updated... actually beyond this it has been optimized technically in terms of sailing performance with technology that was not then available.... its a true keeper..

@pdqsailor1 Wow! That is impressive!

You often hear people say things were far better made X years ago, but I don't think that is always true. Rather, many things now are harder to repair or even made so as not to be repairable.

@ArishMell its true - so very much of what we have today is disposable.. Large screen TV's as an example.. The days of the TV repair man are over.. Cars are horrible today... No Mercedes built today all travel much more than 300,000 miles... Many examples exist of my model exceeding 1MM miles.. They were engineered to be extraordinarily durable.....I needed a new gas clothes dryer - the new one we had from sears mechanically fell apart and could not be fixed... it cost over $700 new... I chose to get a very old Inglis (Canadian built) 40 year old gas dryer.. built like a main battle tank - got it for $110 - the rational is that it has already run for 40 years so it should just keep on going... well that was five years ago and its still running just fine... New sail boats? Total garbage.. engineered badly, built worse... They are designed to make a profit not to be good sailing boats and certainly not durable ones... they are SO bad I am shocked that they can get insurance for them... Not ours.. it has been to hell and back and it comes out smiling.. it also looks and works better than it did when it's as new....Oh and new ones our size.... >$400K... so over priced garbage...To make sure our boat keeps on going... I purchased a sister ship that was in poor condition and had it wrecked..saving all the critical hardware and castings / fittings that are no longer obtainable... I have a spare mast, boom, sails, rebuilt engine etc. That Mercedes of mine? I own a donor car.. because certain parts are impossible to come by... managing how to keep classic well made things is not a thing that everyone knows how to do...We keep my Wife's grandfathers Cadillac Sedan... its a large car.. and it works perfectly... We had dinner all together on Wednesday evening... The silverware at the table was made in 1928... Fickle is something I am not...

@pdqsailor1 All driven by profit! At least silverware doesn't wear out.

I think you've raised another point there, that many people now have little or no practical knowledge. They fall for phrases like "tech savvy" - 'orrible slang but for most of them it comes down to being able to use the Internet and a TV remote-controller..

@ArishMell I went though the "heirlooms" - not counting the silver ware which as you say at least we use... I mean who wears a gold pocket watch? never the less its all valuable in scrap value of gold so it sits locked in the safe...Last time I checked gold does not wear out... I have to bolt that safe to the concrete floor with long fasteners from inside the safe...You are absolutely correct in that no one knows how to fix anything any more... I asked my Daughters then boyfriend who was an engineer if he wanted to see my metal lathe... He comes back with "what is a lathe?" this mind you is a graduate of engineering.. who has probably never picked up a screw driver in his life... My Daughters came to me saying you are sailing your Fathers boat ...Yes.. Well there are two of us and one boat.. which one of us is going to get the boat? I looked at these two characters and responded.. the one of you that learns how to maintain it... The older one then says to her Sister.. I guess that means we are both out.... I really don't understand any of this... when I grew up I HAD TO KNOW how everything worked... No one gives a darn about knowing how anything works today...

@pdqsailor1 Where's it all going to end? Lots and lots of people wondering why nothing works any more and cannot understand the concept of making and mending things?

What sort of "engineering" is he in, though? I think the word is applied now to all sorts of things that never involve shaping metal or soldering wires or fitting parts together.

BTW I know one end of a lathe from another - and how to use it. I wouldn't be much help on a boat though... I become seasick a bit too easily!

@ArishMell There is a general degradation in quality ... and I am OLD school so I purchase solid wood furniture, I drive classic cars, sail a classic boat, maintain spares inventories... I am NOT willing to get on the disposable bandwagon... houses ... were built better in the old days though they need upgrading in insulation and heating systems - and electrical wiring... but for instance my Mothers house has all copper drain pipes through it.. not ABS... and all copper supply lines not PEX... I actually do not have a problem with plastic pipes but copper is better...

They build crap to make a profit.. where is it going to end? I don't know but I am not going along with it.

Good on the lathe... sea sickness is something that you grow out of the more you sail... I used to get sea sick.. then once you get really sick a few times... your body learns to not get sick.... The motion of a boat became very normal to me...

@pdqsailor1 speaking of copper pipes--they carry water through our house. But, our water is acidic. We started getting pinhole leaks. We got a water neutralizer for the acid water, and then we had to get a water softener because of the neutralizer. I preferred the taste and feel of the acidic, non-softened water.

@Poppies Moms house was built in 1965, ours was built in 1952...both with copper but both are on city water with no acids and minimal to no minerals (not hard water), and none of it has ever given us any trouble...

@pdqsailor1 Manufacturers and house-builders were just as capable of low quality a hundred years ago as now. It's the good stuff that's survived. Though a friend in the building trade tells me many of the houses they put up now are "rubbish".

I gather it usually takes a few days, or a week, at sea to become used to the motion, but it must be awful for sailors whose work keeps them below with no sight of the horizon.

@ArishMell Subdivision homes and most construction methods used today are of low quality...keep in mind the motivations of the builders... Make it cheap cheap cheap yet make it look good enough so their profit is high... . Before we did a project at my Mothers house I engaged a structural engineer , one who was referred to me, who did a stamped drawing complete with specifications for each component... The drawing was followed properly - it was a roof structure and this past winter the snow load on it... was massive and there were zero consequences... That is how I will proceed with a planned addition to that house.. The right engineer, a good architect.. and careful management of the construction process to ensure compliance...

Its not days or a week at one shot that seems to cure sea sickness.. its progressively exposing yourself to challenging conditions... fifteen knots and sea state for two or three hours. twenty knots - and by the time you experience forty knots ...you gradually (progressively) acclimatize to it...Yes a view of the horizon is helpful but being at the helm is even MORE helpful because for many people its a lack of control that matters.. when you learn how to steer a sailboat through waves and you have some say in how it does it and the resultant motion then your focus on how you plan on tackling that next wave - well you are in charge not a victim of it.. Eventually the motion of a pitching boat becomes something you understand and can anticipate...even below decks... every boat is also different... I prefer boats that are well powered by adequate sail area and drive through waves rather than get tossed by them... its partially physics... the more speed you have the more comfort your boat experiences in challenging conditions... Our boat has been re-configured to be more upright for a given wind strength and importantly the rudder design has been upgraded to allow for precise control .... Add to this enough sail area of the correct configuration and you have a stiletto that carves through the water not a cork that bobs in it... There is an elegance to a boat sailing powerfully in challenging conditions... Now this said there are bodies of water that are shallow that have short very steep wave patterns that are truly miserable things to be in... The right boat helps but there are limits... our boat did not evolve by accident it did so by design and intent.. It is highly "optimized"... and it makes a difference...