The Deacon's Masterpiece Revisited

We have been shopping this week and dipping into the savings at a great rate. The household furnishings have been dying the death all at once for the past week. Old age claimed the television on Wednesday, Mary's telephone quit, the little white radio only plays static as of Friday, and the microwave oven refused to cook my breakfast this morning. Rather like the deacon's wonderful one-hoss shay.

--What do you think the parson found,
When he got up and stared around?
The poor old chaise in a heap or mound,
As if it had been to the mill and ground!
You see, of course, if you 're not a dunce,
How it went to pieces all at once,--
All at once, and nothing first,--
Just as bubbles do when they burst.
End of the wonderful one-hoss shay.

So we have been shopping. Not spending all that much money to be sure. (Although we have found that one can no longer buy a simple, inexpensive television any more. It has to be thin, the length and width of a garage door, and "HD", whatever that is. Perhaps a Highland Division telly?) But it leaves one eying suspiciously the still functioning appliances which remain. The fridge, for instance, hasn't been looking at all well lately.

I wonder if Fr John or Fr Perez would be willing to come out and do a house-blessing? And perhaps a minor exorcism?