I’m profoundly glad that I wasn’t home alone when it happened.  Most likely the sad event occurred when we were away for three months.  No-one was present.  Perhaps when our friend Nora came by to water our begonia named Rosie…perhaps it happened then.  I hope so.  It is not a nice thought that something so very important should occur in an empty house, while the snow fell and the winds howled just a few inches away.

Yes, sadly it’s time to tell you that my ever-faithful Radio Shack Indoor/Outdoor Thermometer has passed…but not for good.

You may recall a few blog posts I wrote over the years that celebrated the life of a small thermometer.  But be aware that the unit itself did not fail.  No, it was a single AAA Duracell battery that I placed in the instrument when we bought the house in 2000.  That’s nineteen (19) years of life from a slender AAA!!!

I hate to sound like a Madison Avenue ad-man, but when they say their product has staying power, they are not kidding.

Over the years, as I stood in front of our double-basin kitchen sink, grasping a AAA battery to put in the Radio Shack unit, I found I was wasting my time.  I even suggested in a few posts that this was not a normal battery.  I mentioned the following reasons for its unbelievably long life:

–That I had changed the battery while sleep walking.

–I did it while in a coma.

–Someone had crept into our house while we were away and changed the battery.  (It’s a very common crime in remote camps like ours!)

–That it was an experimental battery developed by NASA and I was a Beta tester.

–It was actually solar-powered (it was placed by a window).

–That the whole experience was a dream.

–Santa Claus does exist.

–That there is a subset of ghosts that are held back from the true afterlife only to replace batteries. (If this is true, why did they ignore my three TV remotes?)

–Aliens

–The whole experience was a dream.

I can discount the final possibility because when I finally found a way to open the unit, I placed a new AAA (Duracell)in the back.  The temperature blinked on.  It now displays the outside temperature only .6 degrees from my flashier Costco wall unit.

So, how has my life changed because of this experience?  It really hasn’t.  But now I can look out at a leafless landscape on May 1, 2019 and see that the temperature is a few degrees above freezing.

That makes me so happy.

Too bad Radio Shack has closed, but I expect to hear from the Duracell people any day now with a lucrative offer to write ad copy.

That makes me so happy.

[The actual AAA battery.  I’m thinking of having it mounted or encased in a plexiglass cube like the moon rocks}

[All photos are mine.]