Normalcy returns. Yesterday, the Sears repair technician came to the house with a new compressor for my Kenmore Elite (LG) refrigerator. He left a mere 3 hours later and my behemoth stainless steel kitchen decoration has the potential once again to be a useful appliance. Of course, it won’t be fully graduated to that status until the ice maker bin is once again full of those half-moon shaped gems that make life in the Arizona Desert bearable. Tony, the very courteous and understanding Sears technician sublimated my pure hatred of anything from Sears and anything made in Korea into now guarded optimism that, at least for a time, life in the Lacey house can resume as before.

All is NOT forgiven, however. A few questions remain. Why did consumer reports top rate the Sears Kenmore Elite refrigerator made by LG? Why didn’t I skip past the glowing review and down into the user comments? Why does it take three days to have someone come to the house and another 6 to bring back the required parts?

Oh well…Those questions will have to wait. The Halloween popup stores opened up in Tucson last weekend and Safeway is selling candy in bins decorated with Frankenstein’s Monster. Nancy and I are headed out to South Carolina to participate in the annual American Atheists Convention. We’re taking our solar eclipse sunglasses that we bought in April and join with all the other attendees as we pray for clear skies.

Since spring, we’ve had one major event per month. In May, we went to the Maker’s Faire. Camp Quest AZ was in June, During August, we travelled to Atlanta Georgia for the International Aerial Robotics Competition. September was going to be a month without a major event but that changed when I was honored to be asked to host a comedy showcase for AFSP (American Foundation for Suicide Prevention). For those interested, I’ll be the Master of Ceremonies on the 17^th of September at the Flycatcher in downtown Tucson starting at 8 PM.

I’ll round out the year with a Halloween party on the 30^th of October, the Camp Quest Leadership Summit in November, and Winter Solstice in December. That is “another year in the life of a retired person.”