Welcome to the Island View Bar & Grill. David and I come here on Saturday to relax, and discuss important issues. No politics, economics, religious wrangling, and no Covid-based disputes. There are plenty other people discussing that stuff. We're talking top-shelf critical issues like Linda G. Hill's latest Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt. And we're going to wash the conversation down with some top-shelf beverages. OK, only one of us is drinking from the top shelf. Anyway, Linda says:

"Your prompt for #JusJoJan and Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: 'a rainy day.' Write about the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the phrase 'a rainy day.' Enjoy!"

"Have you been doing any work in your shop, Dan?"

"Unfortunately, not, David. It's been too cold."

"We've had some highs in the forties. How much warmer do you want it?"

"Highs in the forties arrive at two-o'clock in the afternoon, it's the eighteen degrees – or lower – it goes down to overnight. I mean it was two degrees last night."

"But you work in the afternoon, not at three in the morning."

"On a typical day, the overnight low hangs around until ten in the morning. Everything in the shop is cold."

"Cold? You boys want cold? We have cold. We have cold beer on tap. Cold Coronas in the cooler. Ice for David's second auxiliary glass, and cold seltzer for his snifter."

"Your stuff, we want cold, Cheryl. I just don't fancy grabbing an eighteen-degree tool."

"What about heat, Dan. Don't you have a space heater out there?"

"I do, David. And, after about an hour, the ambient air in the workshop is about fifty degrees."

"That should be plenty warm. Go out, turn on the heat, go back in, have your toast while the shop gets toasty, too."

"No can do."

"Why not?"

"Sorry to interrupt. I can answer that question for Dan in a minute. Here's your John Howell's bourbon David and your Corona, Dan. I'll be right back with a couple cherries for that bourbon."

"And maybe a new playlist."

"What's wrong with the playlist now, David. It's 'Classic Hits of the Seventies," Not old enough for you?"

"I can't stand Neil Sedaka. I didn't like 'Laughter in the Rain' when it was a hit in 1974 and, in my humble opinion, it hasn't aged well."

"Well, don't freak out, as they would have said back then, the song's almost over."

"What's next, 'Rainy Days and Mondays' ?"

"It's a seventies theme, David not a rainmaker theme."

"OK, but if there's one more rain song, it better be "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?" by Creedence. – Now, tell me why Dan can't use a space heater."

"He can't do that because he's smart…or perhaps his wife is."

"If those are the two choices, Cheryl, I'll go with his wife. But I don't follow."

"You should never leave a space heater running unattended."

"She's right, David. Once I turn it on, I stay with it."

"What are you two, Mr. and Mrs. Smokey the Bear?"

"It's not worth the risk. Besides, the heater gets the room up to fifty, but my tools are still eighteen. Especially things like my table saw, which are big blocks of cast iron."

"Have you thought about adding a real heating system, Dan?"

"I have, but that's a financial bridge too far."

"It might be worth it, if you could wake up and go out there."

"I did the cost estimate on an electric garage heater. It would be over five-hundred and fifty dollars a month to get the garage comfy during the day and keep it above thirty degrees overnight."

"For that kind of money, Dan, you could come here way more often."

"Haha – that's true, Cheryl, but I don't think that idea is going to fly either."

"You boys want any food?"

"Do you have specials today?"

"We do, Dan. Barbecue Chicken Eggrolls."

"Oh, let's have two orders of those."

"And another round, as long as my young friend is buying."

"I'm buying."

"OK, Dan. I get that over five hundred dollars is a lot, but electric heat is the most expensive way to go."

"That's true, David, but everything else involves fire."

"Aren't you the one who told me that fire is uncontrolled, and that when it's controlled, it's a flame?"

"That sounds like something I would say, but even an open flame is a problem with sawdust, and wood finishes."

"OK, I was just trying to help."

"I appreciate that. You can help next week."

"How's that?"

"You can pick up the bar tab."

We might not be walking for a few days