The plastification of my life, and other woes

It seemed that everything happened at once. For one thing the armrest fell off the driver's side door of my aging van (my only vehicle, except for a dilapidated broom that I am grooming to take its place). The armrest is a pitiful specimen of plastification. It was held in place with three plastic pins, which sheared off flush, plus two plastic screws. The plastic washer/spacers had disintegrated into a tiny pile of rubble with a half-life equal to that of nuclear waste. I can get along without an armrest except that it is the thing with the gripper which one grabs to close the door.

This i...