Yesterday someone tried to steal soda from my fountain. I caught this person in the act. Her response was that she was blind and thought she was getting water. She wasn’t blind. She wasn’t nice. She sure was high, though. She’s not allowed to be here anymore.

It’s funny how indignant people can be when they’re caught doing something they know they shouldn’t. Oh well. That’s all the time I’ve got today.

I confess. Some of the time I used to spend writing this blog has gone into reading hockey blogs instead. With American mainstream media coverage of the world’s greatest game the worst it’s been in my lifetime, a hockey fan has to do whatever it takes.

Enter, among others, blueshirtbulletin.com, hockeyrodent.com, and a newly discovered favorite of mine, hockeybuzz.com.

However, reading about hockey is not all I’ve been doing. Things with Hot D***a have been pretty darn busy, and that’s a good thing. In fact, my partner and I are in the midst of a nineteen day stretch where there’s food-serving-work-to-do each and every day.

Today a man wanted to buy a soda with his Access (food stamp) card. I hate those things. Perhaps I have a lack of compassion, but I don’t think that’s it. Simply put, there is no reason anyone should ever have Access to something as superfluous as a soft drink with welfare money.

The name Access says it all. I mean why doesn’t the government grant me Access to a high definition television? It’s just about as necessary as a soda and I sure would like one. I just don’t want to spend the asking price to get one.

Anyway, I digress. Come pay us a visit. We’re open to the public Monday through Friday, 8:30 am – 5:00 pm. That aforementioned 19 day stretch will be all the more pleasant if you make yourself a part of it!

Lately, a lot of things have been broken. That includes this blog. The fact that I’m writing this right now is highly symbolic, then. That’s because many things that have been problematic seem to have resolved themselves this week. For example, today we have a functional soda fountain for the first time in seven weeks.

With that in mind, expect to hear a big announcement from this very space sometime this week.

In the mean time, enjoy this light and fluffy thought. Cricket and croquet are nearly the same word. Cr___et. It makes me wonder if cricket was originally spelled criquet and pronounced cree-kay. Both sports use wickets, you know. Hmmmmm…

Hi friends. Things are busy, but that’s a great thing. The Coke fountain remains out of service, but supposedly will be replaced tomorrow. We will see! Thank you for your continued patronage during this hectic season!!!

Just in case you’re wondering, Hot D***a is still without a functional soda fountain, and I still haven’t figured out how to be able to send outgoing messages on my computer like I could in the good old days. A number of other things are keeping me pretty darn busy as well Someday…

So, I apologize for the erratic upkeep of this blog and thank you for continuing to be a Hot D***a customer.

In the mean time I ask you to ponder why it is people get so excited about tomorrow’s newspaper today. It’s not as if the contents in the paper changes with a different label. But, boy, when I hand out papers for the Trib a lot of folks ask me if I’ve got “tomorrow’s paper” today. They’re disappointed when I don’t. I suppose it could be because they’ve already read today’s paper. I think it’s because they want to know the future.

Hello out there. And how are we today?

Add to the list of broken things in and around Hot D***a, Tim’s personal computer!

The hard drive doesn’t work anymore! It’s in good company with our now broken and obsolete fountain drink machine, and our corrupted mailing list that currently doesn’t allow us to send anything. Fortunately, the computer is under warranty and most of the files were backed up.

Well, when I have the chance to sit down at a computer for more than a couple of seconds, I must tell you about my experience at a sobriety checkpoint after viewing the movie “Snakes on a Plane.”

Our fountain, may it rest in peace, is the victim of a ruptured obsolete part.

It cannot be repaired. We’re told a new fountain is coming to take its place. We’re not told when.

Post your guesses here… the individual who ends up closest to the actual repair date and time wins free fountain drinks through the end of the year! That is if our new machine keeps running.

Picking up where we left off. Our soda fountain has a temperature control unit that broke. When that happened the machine was unable to tell that it was allowing its liquids to get too cold. Over the weekend a veritable glacier, blocking all liquid from flowing through our machine, formed.

The ice in the soda fountain is melting slowly since that point. After consulting the Coca-Cola repair technician I tried to speed things up this afternoon by pouring hot water into a hole in the fountain.

Well, things definitely got moving… until a water line broke.

Then a trusty but anonymous maintenance man, well call him “Yifxv,” came to my rescue.
The question of the day, of course, is will we ever have a functional soda fountain again? Perhaps Pepsi knows the answer.

That’s the story of our coke machine. More on that tomorrow…

And the soda fountain is down again.

In other news, I was at a wedding this weekend. It took a lot out of me, and it wasn’t even my wedding!

Well, what can you do? Clearly not have a Coke to aid in staying awake.