Fixing Things on Utopia

I suppose, in Utopia, nothing ever breaks or, if it does, the Utopians have a ready-to-hand set of highly trained mechanics of all sorts who just fix it up.  Here in Point Roberts version of Utopia...well, not so much.

Here's how we deal with this mostly: If neither Ed nor I know how to fix something, it's likely that we'll figure out how to get along without it, or we'll just replace it.  I don't mention that latter option with any pride, but still, the prospect of figuring out where in lower Vancouver or in Bellingham you will find a repairer--either bound to involve an hour or two of driving--just leads you into break-and-replace mode.

But if it's something pretty pricey or that we cannot do without, then we are obliged to ferret out a repairer in this near world.  Sometimes, you can find somebody in P.R.  E.g., Neilson's keeps a list of people who do work of various sorts, including repairers.  But it isn't exhaustive.  For example, if my clothes dryer ceases functioning (it is old and i got it free 12 years ago), which is likely, I will turn it into a planter and wait for the next dryer on Point-Interface because there's not a dryer repairer here to my knowledge (other than casual home repair knowledge).  If my fancy, front loading washing machine which is only 18 months old goes down, there is definitely no one here who will know how to repair it and I will have to figure out how to get someone from Bellingham to come up here.  I may just quit washing clothes.

This comes to mind because this past week, two of my workhorse sewing machines at least temporarily retired from their labors.  I was led to a nice retired sewing machine repairman right across the border for the first one.  In 25 minutes, he had sent me on my way with a fixed-up machine and a firm refusal to charge me anything.  May good kharma be coming to him for a long time for such a generous gesture.  The other one required one of those long drives and will doubtless cost much because a special metal part is going to need to be replaced.  The repairman is a long ways away and the work goes to him in shifts.  I take it one place and then someone else picks all the work up every so often and takes it to him North Vancouver.  And then, when fixed, it all repeats but heading south.  This is not a 25-minute repair experience.  It may be gone for several weeks or more.

Utopia would be better, but I'm grateful that I have any repair hopes here, because I am certainly not expected to go through life without a functioning sewing machine.  That's a fundamental belief!  But this problem is one of the continuing downsides of living in a small and isolated place.  You simply can't have everything.  It is so hard to ultimately grasp that.