AS SOON AS we were under the covers, Albertine said, “The boiler is on its last legs.”
“What happened to ‘Good night, my darling, I love you a zillion’?” I asked.
“It’s the scale.”
“Okay, a billion. I can understand that we’ve got to cut back — ”
“The scale in the boiler.”
“The tinkers have been saying that for fifteen years.”
“And they’ve been right for fifteen years.”
“Will it keep limping along until the place is sold?”
“Who knows? That scale keeps building up, so we’re actually putting a lot of our money into heating the scale rather than making steam, and the pressure keeps creeping up because we have to push the steam through these pipes that are being progressively narrowed by scale — ”
“High boiler pressure, the silent killer.”
“It’s like the accumulation of cholesterol plaque in atherosclerosis — ”
“So we could suffer a boiler attack.”
“Kaboom.”
“Aye, yi, yi.”
“And the roof really needs to be completely re-shingled — ”
“Good night, my darling,” I said. “I love you a zillion.”
[to be continued]
Have you missed an episode or two or several?
You can begin reading at the beginning or you can catch up by visiting the archive or consulting the index to the Topical Guide. The Substack serialization of Little Follies begins here; Herb ’n’ Lorna begins here; Reservations Recommended begins here; Where Do You Stop? begins here; What a Piece of Work I Am begins here; At Home with the Glynns begins here; Leaving Small’s Hotel begins here.
You can listen to the episodes on the Personal History podcast. Begin at the beginning or scroll through the episodes to find what you’ve missed. The Substack podcast reading of Little Follies begins here; Herb ’n’ Lorna begins here; Reservations Recommended begins here; Where Do You Stop? begins here; What a Piece of Work I Am begins here; At Home with the Glynns begins here; Leaving Small’s Hotel begins here.
You can listen to “My Mother Takes a Tumble” and “Do Clams Bite?” complete and uninterrupted as audiobooks through YouTube.
You can ensure that you never miss a future issue by getting a free subscription. (You can help support the work by choosing a paid subscription instead.)
At Apple Books you can download free eBooks of Little Follies, Herb ’n’ Lorna, Reservations Recommended, Where Do You Stop?, What a Piece of Work I Am, and At Home with the Glynns.
You’ll find overviews of the entire work in An Introduction to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy (a pdf document), The Origin Story (here on substack), Between the Lines (a video, here on Substack), and at Encyclopedia.com.
Share this post