Repair or Replace - 10 Year Old Shaver

Recently I noticed that my electric shaver hasn't been giving me as close of a shave as I expect. It's missing a lot of hairs even when I work it over the same spot on my face or neck a few times. It worked way better when it was new. That means it's time to throw it out and buy another one, right? Wrong! Key parts on electric shavers are replaceable!

There are two parts that can be replaced on many electric shavers, the blades and the screen. The screen is the mesh cover up at the top. Underneath it are the blades. The blades are the cutting tool, and they oscillate back and forth rapidly via the electric motor. They naturally dull over time and don't cut as closely. The screen covers the blades so they don't touch your skin. When the screen wears down it can result in the blades getting too close, causing skin abrasion, or not getting close enough, causing less effective trimming.

I looked up the model number on Amazon. The first thing I saw is that I can buy a new one of the same model for $125. That seemed like waaay more than I paid years ago. Out of curiosity I clicked through the link... and on the product page Amazon helpfully told me, "You last purchased this item in 2013." Wow, 10 years!

I searched my 2013 orders and found that I originally bought this shaver for $75. First of all, wow, I thought I spent way less than that. I usually buy an inexpensive shaver because I don't need fancy features. Though ISTR choosing the Panasonic even though it was more expensive than certain other brands because I'd had a good experience with a previous Panasonic after poor experiences with 2-3 other major brands. Second, $125 today vs. $75 ten years ago doesn't seem so bad considering inflation. But OTOH, third, this is now a 12 year old model.... Shouldn't it be cheaper now? Well, it kinda is... the newest models are $150 all the way up to $400. 😳

It took some careful shopping but I did find replacement bits. Amazon helpfully remarked above the product image of a blade replacement "Purchased Aug 2017". The manufacturer suggests replacing blades every 1-2 years, not 4-6. Well, here I am now. And I'm replacing the screen for the first time in 10 years AFAIR. I found a blades-and-screen combo for $47.

I paused for a moment before ordering. On the one hand, $47 seems like a lot of money to spend renewing a 10-year-old, $75 item. OTOH, it's less than one-third the cost of the cheapest new, current generation technology. And it seems quite likely it'll rejuvenate my old shaver well enough that I'll be satisfied with it for at least another few years. I bought it.

Now the only problem is the parts have to ship from England. 😂 They'll take 2 weeks to arrive.

Dismissed from Jury Duty— Murder Trial!

I went back to the courthouse today for jury duty. Technically it was Day 3 of jury duty but also my second day at the courthouse. Recall that Day 1 was waiting at home 2.5 weeks ago, Day 2 was being summoned to the courthouse to be attached to a trial and asked to fill out a lengthy questionnaire asking about potential biases.

Today the court was conducting voir dire, the process in which lawyers for both sides ask more in-depth questions of prospective jurors and can "challenge" them for dismissal. I didn't even get as far as questioning. At 3pm, after I'd been sitting in the juror assembly room pretty much all day, an announcement came over the loudspeaker that a full jury had been selected and the rest of us were dismissed.

Previously I'd estimated the jury pool at 50 people and hence my mathematical odds of being selected as a juror or alternate at about 1/3. Today I found the pool was actually more than twice that size. There were other days when they brought in whole other sets of people to be informed of the trial, given written questionnaires, and interviewed.

Now that my involvement with the case is concluded I can discuss public information about it. It is a murder trial. 😨

Am I happy to avoid being on a murder-trial jury? Yes and no. Yes, because I consider it an enormous responsibility to have to judge the facts in such as significant case— with significant punishment awaiting the defendants if convicted. (It at least wasn't a death penalty case.) Not to mention it would have cost me 3 weeks of work. (I'd get paid but my team would struggle to pick up what I'd drop.) On the other hand, someone has to judge the facts in those cases, and I'd rather it be someone intelligent enough to weigh the evidence and its credibility appropriately, be conscious of bias, and reason within the law. I.e., why not me. It's a responsibility I was ready to take on.