Modern Advances

I spend a good deal of my time here complaining about shoddy manufacturing, and inferior products available to consumers today. If I had to generalise, I'd still insist that's true, with a few notable exceptions.

Wrinkle-Free Shirts: I don't ever want to return to ironing five shirts a week for Mr. ETB. No, I'm pleased as can be to pull them from the tumble dryer ready to hang away without another thought. That's progress. I'm much too thrifty to send shirts out, and much too lazy to waste my day pressing those absurd itty-bitty pleats they put at the cuffs of dress shirts. Thanks, but I'll happily purchase the wrinkle free shirts, expensive as they are. The stain resistant ones intrigue me as well because (and I don't know how to put this nicely) the men in this house are not as tidy as they could be. We'll leave it at that.

Food Processors: I have a mini-sized Cuisinart, and I don't know how I ever lived without it. No more scraping the hell out of my knuckles to make bread crumbs, the hand grinder that weighs a ton, and takes forever to set up has largely been set aside in favour of the quickly assembled and cleaned processor. It isn't perfect for everything, but what it does, it does well.

CPAP Machines: They save lives, and relationships. The snoring (oh god, the snoring that shook the whole house) has finally stopped. It is so quiet in here at night, sometimes I get frightened and have to roll over and check that he's still there. Yes, the machines are fiddly, and the masks are hard to fit for each individual, but oh my gosh, the difference is night and day. Better sleep for the patient, and the whole family. That's progress I can appreciate.

Super-Absorbent Towels:In US they are known as the Turbie Twist. It sounds like something you'd never buy until your long-haired son that hates the hairdryer is walking around a cool house with a wet head courting pneumonia. They work! Mr. ETB has started using one as well. I set my hair, so it is irrelevant to my life, but for a couple of fellows that don't have the desire to fiddle with their hair, it is a great product.

All this isn't to say I'll stop complaining (bitterly) about poorly made items, and generally unnecessary things, but I am quick to take advantage of things that make my life better. I don't enjoy doing things the hard way, and I'll take whatever hack I can find that's worthwhile. When surrounded by so much garbage, sometimes it is easy to lose sight of things that have truly improved over the years. That said, I'm not about to give up my hot water bottle for one of those new-fangled   electric blankets, thanks very much.
How about you? Any new-ish inventions that better your life?