It didn't work out with the old girlfriend in Boston. Apparently around 5 PM she looked at her watch and said hm, guess you'd better get going if you want to be back in Becket before dark. Except the trouble was, Ken couldn't reach me--sitting nice and cozy in the warm barn in Middlefield, WITH my phones next to me on the dining table, while we waited for 2 HOUR BARBECUE RIBS to cook, which I'd thought were the Warm Me Up Only 15 minute jobs when I bought them--anyhow Ken, getting no reply, and having no key, had to spend the night at the Super 8 Motel in Lee. I felt badly the next day when I found out. At least he was warmer than he'd have been at the house, down to 40 that night.
So. Ken is back. Indefinitely. He is going to look for jobs locally. I have written him a letter of recommendation. Did well as one for Bonnie and Dominick. I basically write one for anyone who asks these days. Will be writing Paul the Furnace Repair Guy who showed today, one any day now. Paul has shown Ken how to by pass the automatic water feed and how to fill the furnace manually whenever it needs water. (I in fact already know how to do this, would you believe. My father showed me 40 years ago. And you never forget how to fill a furnace.)
So, basically, all you have to do now, instead of ignoring the whole thing and getting heat on demand by shoving the thermostat in the den up or down--is get a flashlight, and better shoes on, and go down the scary rickety stairs to the basement, hanging onto the bannister, which is in fact a maple tree branch my grandfather gerry-rigged years ago--turn right, stare at the furnace, walk gingerly over to it, avoiding dead mice in traps, and shove a certain lever to the right (or maybe left) and turn another thing the other way (let me know if I'm getting too technical) and check that the water level has then come up to where it should: where the black magic marker line is on the glass thing behind the furnace.
Piece of cake. Anyhow we have heat.
Ken had second-coated painting Odd's office, which Outside Bob started. He has also put nice brass numbers on the new classy black non-beige plastic mailbox he installed yesterday. He also took down the 70s track lighting in the kitchen with the track lights covered in brown "wood-grain" contact paper. He made a salad. And hummus (with a ton of garlic)
I meanwhile, working my way through the freezer, as ever have used 2 packets of stewing beef to create a carbonnade of boeuf, which should be ok by tomorrow. I used freezer-found chicken breasts to make chicken piccata yesterday. Not much left in there except some maple-flavour breakfast sausages, 1 filet steak, 1 lamb chop. Ice. Half a package of Eggo Waffles.
I then met friend Wendy from Vermont in Lee, to hand over 4 Norwegian cookbooks and two framed Norsk items, a map and a poster. That I don't want or need. Raced home in time to meet Louise, here to collect the last of the eBay stuff, including a mink coat and a mink and silver fox jacket hat belonged to Ken's wife Pam.
I want this jacket, big time.
Seriously. NEED it. Require it. Desire it. Feel I deserve it. It's fantastic and a perfect fit. Will see what the furrier appraises it at. Or if Ken decides he needs to give it to me because I make such great carbonnade. Or if DK reads this post and secretly contacts Louise and does a deal. Because I'm so wonderful and love it and need it and deserve it, as I said.
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