There's a New Tin Man in Town

Years ago Mistah bought an outdoor deck heater at a yard sale for thirty bucks. He put it in the car and we ended up leaving the car downtown that night and when he went back to pick it up in the morning he said the heater lying there in the way way back looked like the Tin Man.

Tin Man has been our best friend ever since.

But Tin Man recently started not working well and performing badly -- hey, it happens to the best of us -- and as much as we've loved him all these years, it was time for a new Tin Man to step up and take on the responsibility of being our new best friend.

It's a lot of work, being our best friend.

We put on the quite recently late, and quite everlastingly great, Vincente Fernandez, and we -- and by we I mean I -- got to work . . . 

One cannot always put together an appliance outside on a December day, but when one can . . . 

. . . one does.

The Tree is not atilt; in that last photo the photographer clearly was. 

It took a while . . . 

. . . but I loved every moment . . . 

I cracked up when I saw the 800 number on a sticker on the unit. Like, "when your unit dies call us."

Not this one, baby.

Putting together Tin Man's hat was one of the last steps . . . 

. . . and I'm going to borrow it wear it as a fascinator at every Royal wedding I get invited to.

Nuts and screws and bolts and washers atop the unit, my friends . . . 

And then . . . 

. . . Voilà.

Tin Man II

My new best friend.