$79.95 later, we have a working dishwasher. A nice repairman came out and spent two minutes re-connecting some wires — wires that no doubt became loose when Husband was poking around trying to discover the source of the stench. Oh, well. We’re yuppies — we can’t be expected to know our way around large kitchen appliances.

Oh, you thought they had retired the word “yuppie”? Well, I heard it used just the other day as I was hanging around the coffee shop at the marina. Port City, like the Simpsons’ Springfield, encompasses a vast array of topographical features — ocean, river, mountain, marsh, and so on — so we do indeed have a marina. I heard a man complaining about “some yuppie who wanted to buy my boat.” From the man’s local accent and the tone of his voice I surmised that by “yuppie” he meant, “non-native Port City dweller who is stupid enough to buy real estate at these prices” — in other words, someone just like me. This from a man who had a yacht in a marina where boat slips cost more than my mortgage.

Going back to the origin of the word “yuppie,” I could see that we no longer fit the profile anyway. “Yuppie” stems from an acronym that stands for “Young Urban Professional.” Husband and I are no longer young, no longer urban, and we work (from home) in our pajamas. Aging, Suburban, Semi-Professional– yup, we’re “Assies.”

To underscore how non-urban we are, look what wandered into our driveway as we were waiting for the repairman! Their little brains must have been addled by the freakishly warm weather: 86 degrees this afternoon, after snowing just last week.