Carol and I sometimes talk about the fact that our neighborhood doesn’t have natural gas service, but we’re surrounded by streets that do. The last time we had that discussion was in August, when heating oil was heading for $5/gal. But now with heating oil $2.50/gallon or less, I’m reminded of the downside of natural gas.
Year: 2008
Bulb-ous
It’s always something. Got home late tonight, after what I admit was a fairly successful sojourn of Christmas shopping. Carol reported that the light under the over-stove microwave oven was out. So I got a Phillips head screwdriver and removed the cover.
Both bulbs were out, which seemed a little strange. The bulb on the right came out easily, but when I tried to unscrew the bulb on the left it looked like this.
So… not knowing which circuit breaker the microwave is on, because most of the breakers aren’t labeled, I took a pair of insulated needle nose pliers and deliberately shorted out the socket. There was a little explosion, and knowing the bulb’s current comes straight from the 120V outlet, I could assume that the circuit breaker would pop with no damage likely to the microwave oven.
With the power off, I was able to get the screw cap out of the socket with the pliers. Then I took the other bulb, intact but burned out, to Lowe’s — a five mile drive — checked the wattage (40), and bought a couple of replacements.
Got back home, installed the bulbs, and screwed the glass cover back in place. I went downstairs, reset the circuit breaker, went back upstairs, turned on the lights and — voila! — problem fixed. And after all of that I didn’t feel like writing about anything else.
Petula Clark goes green?
Here’s a bit of Petula trivia I’ve never seen before. Maybe somebody can ask her if it’s true? At least the part about her ordering a Porche in an unusual shade of green.
There is a story that the singer Petula Clark ordered a car in a unique shade of green and Porsche ordered far too much of the paint and has been using up the stock ever since. I asked whether this green was that colour; but no reply was the reply.
Boston Blues
Back in April I featured a video from The Boston Globe about the local economy, focusing on retail stores. The Globe has a new, similar piece, but this one is about businessmen who normally don’t get a lot of sympathy — auto dealers.
Automile blues (Boston Globe) Showroom traffic is down and so are spirits at Cadillac Hummer Saab Village in Norwood, as uncertainties about the auto industry and financing hurt sales on the famed Auto Mile. By Bill Greene, Globe Staff
The Coffee Keeps Coming
Hurry over to Keep The Coffee Coming and listen to Bing Crosby’s song ‘The Secret of Christmas‘.
My Deployed Wife
We were lucky this past Thursday when an ice storm missed us, but not very far from here, in Central Massachusetts, conditions are very bad. Entire towns are without power, and some won’t have it back until mid-week.
Carol is a volunteer with the Medical Reserve Corps. Today she’s at a middle school in Worcester, helping the families that have taken shelter there. Carol called a minute ago and said that while driving there it was almost as if there were a line along the road, where all of a sudden trees were down everywhere. Doctors and nurses are the core of the corps, but Carol is a nutritionist, and this morning on her way out at 6:30 she joked that she’d put everybody on a diet.