Greetings, my fellow port swillers!
I think Mrs. Robbo has some vague notion that to commemorate Dr. King’s birth, I’m going to spend the afternoon painting the upstairs hall. Silly Mrs. R!
Just got home from teh grocery store. We’re expecting maybe half a foot of snow tomorrow, so the place was mobbed with panicky shoppers stocking up on T.P., batteries, bottled water and candles. Ol’ Robbo drifted up and down the aisles with a gentle smile on his face: I love this local tradition. Indeed, it was in honor of it that I originally coined the phrase “Storm of the Century of the Week”.
The gels, even while enjoying today off from school, are, needless to say, already calculating the odds of bagging a snow day tomorrow. Lazy slugs. This is why we’re losing the Republic. In case the power goes out, the Port Swiller Manor larder is stocked with plenty of cans of Spaghetti-O’s, ravioli and other range-top provisions. When the Middle Gel informed me this morning that she has “issues” with products like these, I simply replied that she could look forward to a slow and agonizing death by starvation then.
Not that I much follow pro football anymore, but it gladdened my heart to see New England eliminated yesterday. I have long noticed that Bahston sports fans don’t handle success very well. When the Sawx or the Pats are down, said fans are suitably humble and respectful. Give them victory, however, and they turn into super king kamaya-maya Massholes. Same thing with the teams themselves. And I especially think that Tom Brady is an arrogant prick.
Anyhoo, it is a tradition watch the actual Sooper Bowl at Port Swiller Manor. I suppose I’ll be rooting for the Broncos, in part because I like Peyton Manning, in part because I dislike the Seahawks. And why do I dislike them, you may ask? Well, I will tell you: In January 2000, when Robbo was still following the Dolphins, they played their hearts out to come from behind and beat Seattle in the wildcard. The next week, they were still so exhausted by the effort that they got absolutely thrashed by Jacksonville by a score of 62-7. That thrashing was the great Dan Marino’s last ball game before he retired and I’ve always been saddened that he should end his career on such a down note. I lay the blame at the feet of the Seahawks.
Well, teh gels are off to see “Frozen” again this afternoon, so ol’ Robbo is going to make himself a cup of tea and settle down to read about the Jesuit martyrs in Canada. Speaking of movies, I am proud to say that I have not seen a single one on the list of Oscar nominees this year and have no interest in doing so. Indeed, I’ve never even heard of half of them. My contempt for so-called “popular culchah” grows ever deeper as I get older.
But then again, if you’re a regular friend of teh decanter, you already knew that. Cheers!
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January 20, 2014 at 2:23 pm
rbj1
I’m at the point that now I’m not even going to bother shoveling our expected 1-2.” Spent the last couple of weeks shoveling two feet. It’s the cold that bothers me. And my furnace picked an inauspicious time to give up the ghost. And it turns out natural gas furnaces need an annual inspection: mine had cracks in all three burners, it was a bomb waiting to happen. The guy didn’t even wait until later in the week to replace it, a new temporary one was in place within the hour.
January 20, 2014 at 3:18 pm
Diane Werle
The first annual maintenance contract I picked up was for the HVAC; the units were only two years old, so it wasn’t so much the need to avert an explosion that motivated me, more the fact that I hate being either too hot or too cold.
Speaking of which, Polar Vortex, Round Two is on its way. There are errands I should run this afternoon, but it’s nice and warm inside. Besides, you aren’t really a Wisconsinite unless you are pumping gas at 6 a..m. in a minus twenty-five wind chill.
January 20, 2014 at 5:20 pm
Robbo
Yikes!
We’re gas, too, and when my restless braims don’t have anything else to occupy them late at night, I sometimes worry about house going boom.
We’ve got a good HVAC service contract – the furnace is only about two years old – but the last time the guy was out he noted that the water heater, which is at least 14 years old, is likely to fail any time now. Ka-CHING!
January 20, 2014 at 6:12 pm
rbj1
As long as you get it inspected yearly. The company had called me this past fall offering a service call, but given that everything seemed fine, I turned them down. It’s now going to find a way into the budget.
January 20, 2014 at 6:23 pm
captainned
I agree with you on most of the Best Picture nominees, but you need to see Gravity. Sandra is not her usual character, so don’t worry about that.
As for furnaces, those of us further north and much more familiar with the Polar Vortex eschew hot-air heating and go right to old-fashioned hot-water radiator heating (it’s really easy to bolt hot-water duties on the side of a traditional boiler). I’m lucky to live in one of the few spots with NG, so that’s what we use. The annual furnace check is one of those autumn rituals that Vermonters grok, just like apple-picking season and avoiding the tourons when the leaves come out.
Patriots: I couldn’t be happier. Besides, Brady has a fairly comfortable spot in which to spend the off-season, nudge-nudge, wink-wink.
Show the Middle Gel the beginning of Road Warrior, where we see that Max lives on canned dog food and only lets his dog lick out the fiddly bits (presumes he makes dog eat on the hoof).