2014 Is Off to a Very Slow Start

The battery in my 1993 Jeep Cherokee has been dead since Thanksgiving, except for an hour on January 3, when I called AAA out to jump start it. I should have run it for 2 hours I guess. No worries, my second car is a ZipCar.

The hot water went out at the office and it took 3 days for the building owner to get that fixed. I suppose if you needed hot water you could microwave it. Speaking of which, my stove-top microwave at home has been dead for a year. I bought it new in 2005, so that's too soon. I may wait until it reaches the end of it's natural life before replacing it. I can hardly drive to an appliance store to replace it.

Then there's my cable box, which has been out of whack since Christmas week. The internet still works, so I've been working my way through Breaking Bad on Netflix. I'm in the middle of the 4th season and they seem to be just marking time. If I don't get the cable fixed, I guess I'll be boycotting the 2014 Russian Winter Olympics.

We've been having one of those cold snaps that can only be caused by global warming. Not Minnesota or Wisconsin cold, but cold enough for the mile walk to and from work. That reminds me,  I ordered a Clore jump starter battery from Amazon.com that is not legal in California or Oregon. I forgot to stock up on incandescent lightbulbs before they became illegal on January 1. The fluorescents don't really work in my dimmer-switched sockets.

I decided to bypass Windows 8 and bought a Mac Mini, which I can't figure out how to use. My pictures are on there somewhere but I can't find the files to upload them. About 1% of my iTunes library disappeared in the transition, another 6% lost the album titles, and some unknown percentage lost their cover art. I could painstakingly fix all that, I'm not going anywhere.

The Windows laptop I use for work says I should consider replacing my battery. OK, I'm considering it. I watered my cactus.

I'm looking at my 2013 To Do list. If you don't sweep your stairs for a year, they begin to resemble the stairs to a hay loft. And if you don't pick up your guest bedroom, it begins to resemble a tool shed. That's the bachelor life. Glamorous. My late grandfather once asked me, how do you feed yourself?

I grilled a nice tenderloin steak tonight, along with grilled onions and zucchini. The steak reached it's expiration date 4 days ago. You should never grill a steak before its time is up. Aged beef, it's what's for dinner.

I will not be taking down my Christmas decorations until Valentine's Day. Happy Holidays. Sorry, no picture. I did have an epiphany earlier this week, but it passed.

Three of my favorite shirts have worn through the elbows. Why, in the internet age, can't you go back to the same shelf in the same store you bought your favorite shirt 10 years ago and get another one just like it? Well, one or two sizes bigger.

My brother-in-law in Beaverton found a great pair of ecco boots he liked and bought a second pair to have on hand when the first pair wear out. They are great boots, I bought a pair too. Six weeks later and I can't find them on the ecco website.

My kitchen sink garbage disposal, which is no older than my microwave, occasionally leaks under circumstances that are hard to pin down, not that I'm trying to pin them down, you understand. The drain in my bathroom sink is also slow, unless I pull out the drain stopper, which solves that problem.

The flavor bar on my Weber tabletop grill has after a decade or so begun to rust through. The model has been discontinued by the manufacturer.

And there you have it, a fine beginning to 2014.