The Thrill of Victory; The Agony of Defeat ...

So, the holidays went fine, nobody blew up or melted down, kids, grandkids, parents, in-laws, nieces and nephews, dogs, everybody made it through another one, and happy I am that it was so.

Of course, my hot tub is on the fritz. The electrical cord circuit-breaker keeps kicking the system off, and that's generally a symptom of something that needs to be fixed before you immerse your naked body into a body of water surrounded by things electrical. Being electrocuted unconscious and then drowned is not on the top of my to-do list.

I await the phone call from the service guy -- after spending a pleasant thirty minutes earlier today in the rain getting the board the deck guy installed in front of the access hatch on the tub. This was cleverly held in place by seven long screws that required leaning my bodyweight upon a T-handled Phillips screwdriver to break 'em loose.

Other than a few spiders and some wires, I don't recognize most of the stuff under the hatch well enough to fool with it. If I had to guess, based on experience with the previous spa we had, I'd say the heater is probably shot, which requires new parts anyhow.

Then again, how hard is your life when the biggest thing you have to worry about is a malfunctioning hot tub?

Oh, dear. The ash tray is full in the Rolls. We shall have to get another ...