Plumbing fail, again

Our hot water heater has decided to give up the ghost.  It has ceased to be.  It is an ex-hot water heater.  It is pushing up the daisies and gone to meet its maker, so to speak.  As you can imagine, this does put a bit of a damper of any plans to take a warm shower, as anything that comes out of the shower head now feels like pure glacier runoff.

Although this time, at least it is not sewage backing up into the tub.  Still, it tends to be a bit of an inconvenience.

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The Holidays and Tips from your Friendly Local Service Industry Professionals

December is upon us, we’ve survived Thanksgiving weekend and the Black Friday-Cyber Monday mayhem that ensued.  I didn’t hear any stories about people getting trampled to death at Wal-Marts this year, but that just might be because I was working Fri-Sun and not watching the news.

To do my part to keep this month as harmonious and happy as possible, I’ve collected some tips and tricks from my own experience and from various individuals and places around the internet.  Read these, learn them, and you’ll find that your shopping, dining, and general interactions with people will go better for the rest of the year and possibly into the next one.

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Hello again, everyone. Long time no blog.

I am just now managing to recover from I guess what you might call a flare-up of my old back injury.  For a little while, it was pretty bad.  But it is getting better.  I have been utilizing the collection of canes that Kelly and I got not quite six years ago when I managed, in the space of a few months, to badly injure my right knee and then my back.  Probably the worst injuries, at least in terms of recovery time, that I have ever had.

But this current episode makes no sense to me.

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A letter to a friend

Dear Carter,
I suspect you know all of this already.  You probably know a lot of things I don’t, but I wanted to take a moment to write you anyway.  I’ll tell you straight away, I’ve missed you.  When you took ill a few months ago we all assumed that you’d bounce right.  You were always amazing with your energy and tenacity despite your age.

But you didn’t get better.  You got worse.  And on Thursday, you died.

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Autumn in New England

It has been kind of strange that we had such a dry, warm September, and there have been some warm days in October too.  But I think you can’t deny that fall has finally arrived in Greater Boston.

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Lack of sleep is getting to me

I want to offer an apology to all the people I should be calling, or hanging out with, or otherwise spending time interacting with, because I have not done those things much lately.

For a few weeks now, most of what I have been concerned with is trying to get some rest.

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A Gentle Reminder as We Approach the Holiday Season

I know that there are a lot of people who follow this blog who understand this.  I also know that there are a lot of people who follow this blog who might not.  I’m asking you to read this post and try to understand before you ask the dreaded Holiday questions of one of us who works in the Service Industry, Retail, is in Food Service, or is a Professional Musician of some type.

Why I Can’t Spend the Holidays With You – A Guide

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1,260 books and counting

We don’t write about books around here as much as we probably should.  Life, politics, history, current events, and other interesting stuff tends to get in the way.  We’re OK with that, those things deserve our time and attention as well.

Not too long ago, Geoff wrote about some home reorganizing.  That has been a part of a much larger multi-month cull and organize project.  Part of that project has been BOOKS.

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Quick trip to Mt. Washington in New Hampshire

I had to go to our branch office in Bedford, New Hampshire on Friday, which gave me a chance to have dinner with my sister Liz and her family in Lee.  It also allowed me to make a trip to Mt. Washington the next day to do some hiking for the Longest Day with coworker Jason Lynch and his team.   I had never been to Mt. Washington before, but I have wanted to climb it for years.  So I finally had my chance.

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