Sciatica continues to ebb, and the transplanted rose of Sharon bushes are doing fine after two days of rain, some of it torrential.

Remember a few days ago that I wrote something about the unfairness of more than one major appliance conking out in one year? Well, the television is making ugly noises that indicate imminent speaker death.

Life is cruel.

Yesterday, I went to Best Buy in Kitchener and bought a new one.

Guess what? A 32-inch TV, once large, is now “small”, and it is very difficult — practically impossible — to find a good-quality device without Internet capability. If you live in small-town Ontario, you are doomed to disappointment if all you want is a TV that connects to an antenna or a cable network, and peripherals such as a DVD player or a streaming box.

So now I possess a so-called “smart” TV that boasts a 43-inch screen — still “small” by current standards. I may want to watch it from the porch.

It was obscenely expensive, especially for a gadget that will inevitably be superseded within the next ten years. And it must be “calibrated” to ensure that the screen renders colours correctly, a process that adds $100.00 to the already extreme price.

I did not buy the extended warranty. My appetite for spending is completely exhausted.