Dick and I discussed this recently—the dust has settled, Buddy has had a productive year since his return. He is hanging in there.
But Dick and I both agree that the first words, I screamed were, “I’ve killed Buddy.”
I don’t know why I didn’t write that on the day. I know most of the time I’m rushing to get things down. And to fit on a page. I know that I’ve always tried to be accurate in my journaling, but I’m human.
I know the second thing I said after dropping Buddy, was, “I dropped Buddy.” And I repeated that over and over even after Dick came to the back of the car to check out what had happened.
But the initial scream, while Dick was still on his conference call was, “I’ve killed Buddy.”
Can you have an overly developed sense of anthropomorphization? Is that even a thing?
(Buddy is a 30-something Kitchen Aid 5-quart Artisan Mixer who has made bread two or more times a week for most of his life with me in case you have missed other posts about him. I write, “most of his life with me” because there have been a couple periods where I’ve been injured and not cooked that much.)
The buring question is….Did Buddy survive? I need to know! I have Buddy’s older version – mine is 43 and still going strong, through many moves, though never a tumble like Buddy. It is a reminder to me that it’s probably time to take mine in for a tune up. For the record, no, I don’t think one can have an overly developed sense of anthropomorphization. What color is Buddy? Back in the day they didn’t have come in 31 flavors/colors as they do now.
Kare, thanks for stopping by. The first paragraph states Buddy has had a productive year. This incident on the journal page happened in 2022 so we are well out of the woods on this—except that it is clear from other indications that Buddy might need to retire soon. We are thinking that mixing Dick’s delicious chocolate chip cookies is something that he’s earned the right to retire on. I’m looking at other brands of mixer now for the future. I tried a new Kitchen Aid and it didn’t stand up to even 3 months of baking work. A very expensive piece of non-working even though it was on sale! I’m looking at the Ankarsrum—actually saving as it has a hefty price tag.
If you have one of Buddy’s cousins and it’s 43 and going strong FANTASTIC. You may have missed other posts where I mention what the repair man told me when we took Buddy in for a tune up in 2022—the oil gets sludgy after a time and you want to take them in for maintenance (I think he said every 10 or 15 years, but I don’t recall, I know it was further out than we’d have to consider with Buddy). Call around or google for an expert in your area who can do this. If you wait too long you can damage parts and then they aren’t fixable unless the maintenance guy has other machines to tear apart.
Whatever you do, realize that the new Kitchen Aids are not like the old ones! Especially if you’re a bread baker.
Oh, and Buddy is a very handsome charcoal grey. It’s a color that is no longer available. He has a sort of pebbly finish. And I do not know why they no longer have this color because it is not as stark (for counter decor if you leave them out) as the glossy black, nor as gaudy as the other colors they’ve come up with. And he goes with everything.
As I’ve said, when we do “retire” him it will be partially first, and he’ll continue to sit out on the counter and watch over everything—because frankly you never know when you might need to make chocolate chip cookies!
Where did you take it? Ours doesn’t get used a lot but hasn’t ever been serviced and it is more than 15 years old
Tyanne I took it to someone named Kurt (Curt?) Wolf in Stillwater, but the card with contact is not in my computer and the journal is in storage so I don’t know more than that. He fixed it at the end of 2022 and the searches I did in Google have not shown anything. I don’t know if this father/son business has shut. If I find breadcrumbs I will give you a heads up.
Does your model have any oil seeping out of it, or any smudgey goo near any of the motor head openings? If so it probably does need servicing because as that viscosity changes so does the working of your machine.
If you just have some small issues with it, such as it doesn’t seem to mix the same way it used to then you might just want to check the dime test and see that the beaters are still hitting the bowl the way they need to. There are videos on doing this test and what to look for on Youtube.
Thanks. I can google, I just thought I would have a starting place if I knew where you took yours.. Yeah, we just recently used and there was a bit of thick stuff when I pulled it out to clean before we used it and it was super noisy. I don’t use it, I don’t do bread and prefer the hand mixer. Jeff prefers the big one
Tyanne, I’m sorry I can’t give you something definitive here. I tried to pull down some of my recent journals to look for the business card as I know I put it in there—but I still haven’t been able to rebuild my digital files and index the last few journals. A huge headache here. I’m concerned that when I google the same words I used 2 years ago and they don’t come up that they may be out of business. I know the father was getting on, and I don’t know that the son was interested in small appliances. If it turns up I’ll pass it along.