Stuck In A La-Z-Boy

No, I wasn’t being a couch potato all day, or a recliner potato, either. But I did spend some time stuck in my La-Z-Boy recliner yesterday evening.

We actually started the day with a quick run up to the gun show at the Volusia County Fairgrounds. I didn’t see anything I couldn’t live without, but it’s always interesting to look at what’s available and the prices things are going for. I’m also amazed at how much guns I used to own have increased in value over the years. When Terry and I became fulltime RVers I sold off most of my gun collection, and one of the items I sold was a Colt Python .357 magnum revolver. These have always been top class guns and have always drawn a big price. When I sold mine in 1999 I got $600 for it, which I considered fair since I had paid $500 for it a couple of years earlier. I saw three Pythons at the gun show in the $2,500 to $2,800 range. Try getting that kind of return on your CD from your bank!

When we left the fairgrounds we made a stop at Walmart, something I always dread. Especially on weekends. Especially on the weekend when the state of Florida is having their tax-free back to school days, when there is no sales tax on all school supplies, clothes, computers. etc. I expected the place to be mobbed, but it really wasn’t that bad.

Back at home, I spent some time going over the 8000+ words I had written the day before and making corrections while Terry fixed dinner. I finished up the corrections after dinner while she did the dishes, and then we retired to the living room for a relaxing evening watching TV. And that’s when everything went to hell.

About half an hour after we sat down, I heard a loud pop outside and the power went off. I knew immediately that a transformer had blown somewhere, and a call to Florida Power & Light got a recorded message that they were already aware of the problem and expected to have power back on by 10:15 PM. That was about 8 o’clock. No big problem, we’ve got flashlights, battery-powered lights, Kindle Paperwhites to read, and while it was warm, it was not all that uncomfortable.

The problem was that I was sitting in my La-Z-Boy recliner with the footrest up when the power went out. If you have never seen a fat old man trying to get out of a powered recliner when the electricity goes out, take Miss Terry’s word for it. It’s not a pretty sight. My back was actually feeling pretty good until I had to do all those contortions!

My buddy Greg White told me that some powered recliners are also battery-operated, and once I was out, Terry looked and sure enough, there’s a compartment in the power cord that takes two square 9 volt batteries. She put a couple of Duracell’s in it and the chair moved about an inch and stopped. And this was just the chair, my fat butt was already out of it. The batteries are brand-new, but I don’t know, maybe they weren’t all that great. I’ll buy some new ones today and try again.
10:15 came and get went, and though there were a couple of power company trucks out working on the street it was another half hour past the promised time before the lights came back on. Just another little speed bump on the road of life. No big deal. Well, no big deal unless you’re a fat man stuck in a La-Z-Boy recliner.

Congratulations Sky Renfro, winner of this week’s drawing for an RV camping journal donated by Barbara House. We had 61 entries this time around. Stay tuned, a new contest starts soon.

Thought For The Day – Do you remember, before the Internet, when everyone thought the cause of collective stupidity was a lack of access to information? Well, it turns out that wasn’t it.