…which I should never do.

But I got to thinking about this #tbt post today because we recently replaced the a/c in our little engine that could, but couldn’t cool. And when A/C Guy was here in June to do the annual maintenance check on the home unit, he only gave her another year.

Mebbe.

Elen takes a moment to sob inelegantly here. She’s hotter than she used to be. We’re talking climate change and not the I’m too sexy for my…

Here we go.

Let’s throw.

Phantom Furnace Guy and the mid-efficiency pop princess…

Furnace Guy has been here so many times since August, I may have to assign him his own mug. Just sayin’.

You know, we inherited a furnace when we bought this house. I wouldn’t say it was as old as dirt, but it could qualify as a Golden Girl. Yet, it somehow managed to survive on an annual routine maintenance visit for a very long time. Very long. I guess it was one of those furnaces that used to walk a mile to school….in winter….in two feet of snow…with no boots.

My eight-year-old new furnace — not so much. This baby is a high maintenance mid-efficiency little drama-queen-in-waiting, the pop princess of the heating/ac set.

After replacing her motor and tinkering off and on with her all summer, Furnace Guy was coming Monday for the annual check-up — some unspecified time between noon and five. Fortunately, I’m usually home at some unspecified time so this worked for me.

I got to thinking, I’m spending a lot of money here. This should be more fun for me. What to do? I decided to cook a roast chicken dinner while Furnace Guy was here, just to torment him. Yes. I have a dark side. I figure if I can make G-Man my slave just by making my red wine braised beef — and he IS my slave — I should be able to torment Furnace Guy with a roast chicken. Easy-peasy.

By the time Furnace Guy arrived, that chicken was wafting nice little roasty aromas everywhere. And I think if he’d been flying solo, FG would have bartered his cheque for a chicken dinner.

Torment 101. I passed it.

Our pop princess is purring like a kitten after all this attention $$$. It better hold her for another year. Furnace Guy might have had the last word. He was sporting so much cologne that I could still smell him in the basement for hours after he left — Phantom Furnace Guy.

Torment 101. He passed it. I guess we’ll have to call it a draw.

(October 2008)

________

And that’s how we’re rolling this Throwback Thursday.

Elen

NOTE: THESE IMAGES ARE LICENSED, ROYALTY-FREE IMAGES FROM FOTOLIA.COM AND ISTOCKPHOTO.COM, RESPECTIVELY. NO POACHING, PLEASE.