I Can't Explain

Don't freak out! I used a song title from the '60's for a change. This one I 'borrowed' from The Who, and it means a lot to me, because it was one of the few Who songs I could play on my bass, without totally butchering.
The thing that I can't explain, is the rapid changes in merchandise availability. I would think that waffles are pretty much a standard type of breakfast amongst American families. But times are a changing. More and more households rely on pre-packaged, pre-mixed, pre-cooked food to eat right out of the package. I think I'm safe in saying that most households rely on more than one income to support the cost of living, so nobody has time to prepare, let alone eat a decent breakfast. Now that I'm out-of-work, I have the luxury of being able to prepare my favorite, carb-laden meals, pancakes and waffles. Unfortunately, my waffle iron has seen better days. In the baby boom years, I think waffle irons were popular house-warming and wedding gifts. Not so long ago, you'd see them in the Sunday newspaper supplements, on sale for $29.95 at any number of department stores. The iron that I use, came with a non-stick coating. After thousands of waffles, the non-stick coating lost it's repellant qualities, making it necessary to spray some form of oil on the grid to keep from fighting to get the waffles off the cooker. I like waffles that are fluffy, not the type that have ben on the grille too long and get a cardboard-like quality to them. So after using the oils to make removal easy, cleaning the iron has turned into a nightmare. I try to avoid immersing electrical equipment in water when ever possible, but not just the removable grids have gotten tarnished from the spray oil, the whole thing is a gloppy mess. It takes much longer to clean up after making the waffles than it does to prepare and eat them. This is precious time I could better utilize to look for a job, or write blogs. I finally decided to price a new waffle maker.
My first destination was Froogle.com. The implements they displayed were of the Martha Stewart caliber. As much as I love waffles, I'm not about to spend $149.99 on a machine to cook them. For that price, it should mix the batter, cook the waffles and serve them to me! If I was working, and had all the money in the universe, I see no reason to spend that much on a simple tool that could be gotten for thirty bucks two or three years ago. I next ventured over to Overstock.com. They were also poorly suited to fit my waffle addiction. Why have waffle irons gotten so damn rare and expensive? I can't explain. I'll certainly try though. As I mentioned earlier on, everybody's rushing to get somewhere, so taking time out to prepare a meal is a rarity. Popping an Eggo Toaster Waffle into the microwave is a far cry faster and easier than dragging out all the ingredients and fixing them yourself. Of course I don't think there's any comparison to how they taste. Since I'm a diabetic, I've devised a special formula to the mix, in order to help me deal with the wimpy tasting sugar-free syrups that are flooding the market. The fact that I often add fruit to the mix also has contributed to the demise of my waffle iron.
I suppose that I could try one of those liquidator outlets to see what they have to offer. I suppose I should hustle, there may be a run on the market, when all the carbo-junkies go out looking to score these much prized works.