So Long, Good and Mostly Faithful Furnace

 It has to happen, our old furnace was pitiful.  It would go and go, then quit. Sometimes you could turn it off and then back on and it would work.

Have you seen the movie Armaggedon?  It is a fav of mine because Bruce Willis is a fave of mine and several other actors.  When the Russian guy beats all over the space ship panel to get it going and in his exasperation says, "This is how we do it in Russia!"  So, when just flipping the switch wouldn't work, Handy Man would go down and bang on it and quote the Russian. It would always come back on.

First my brother Tim then our friend Darin replaced most parts on it through the years and it kept on going.  

Today we said, "Farewell."

My brother asked if this wasn't a Kodak moment, after all these years. He said, "Kind of like losing a pet."

He had been trying to get me to replace it for years.  Before it started acting up, I began to lose my original appliances one by one, refrigerator, stove, microwave, toaster, each one more awful than the last and not worth the cost to bring them home.  I surely didn't want to part with the big bucks and just have yet another piece of junk, so I was resistant.  

Hard to see the picture but lots of cracks.

I got one last use out of old guy- an afternoon of deconstruction for the gramerlings. 

So we are toasty warm thanks to Tim and Brent and a weekend full of work. 

This was the coldest winter we've had in a way long time.  Color me surprised when life started peeping out of these pansies I bought last March at the start of the pandemic and just plunked in this ol' log.  Blooming like  crazy.  Maybe it was an occupant in the little fairy house that offered some protection. 

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it is back to work I go.  I think this is  one of the harder parts of grief.  The part where you are changed by loss, but everything else is exactly the same.  Today, putting away food after dinner, I wondered at all the times I've packed up something tasty to send to Jimi. I also wondered how long it will be before that isn't my first thought when grabbing a ziploc or cottage cheese container. He always saved them for me and returned any jars I used.  It feels like the expectation is to just go on, as if it never happened.  Sometimes it feels to me like I disappoint people by still being sad.  Oh well, a disappointment I will be because sad I am.