Thursdays on Facebook people post old pictures and call it Throwback Thursday. Just now I saw a reference to Flashback Friday on another site and that got me wondering about the difference.

According to one Internet source, they are totally different concepts. A throwback is a reminder or reminiscent of something. For example: men wearing their hair long in 2014 is a throwback to the 1970s.

And a flashback is an episode in which you have a mental image of something that actually happened in the past, for example reliving a traumatic event.

I just read an article that said the common usage of those terms on social media treats them interchangeably, and it's simply an excuse to post old pictures two days a week. I'll buy that: wouldn't put anything past the segments of our society that increasingly substitute the word 'awesome' for thought-out conversation. I can remember back in the spaced-out 1970s when the glazed-eye set applied 'far out' to every situation. I suppose that would make 'awesome' a form of throwback to the 1970s.

Not that I ever remember to flash back on Friday or throw back on Thursday. If I feel like posting an old picture on Tuesday, I go ahead because come Thursday or Friday I will probably have forgotten about the desire.

It is bitterly cold out. I ventured forth to shovel around the front door and check the unheated garage for liquids that would freeze. They already froze, and that simplifies things: if it's frozen today, then it will freeze.

The electrician is coming tomorrow to investigate a mystery with the heating system, and the plumber is probably hot on his heels because whatever caused the problem is in the heat system itself. It's a little bit of chicken and egg: the electrician is looking to make sure the breaker isn't weak and it should have flipped when what is wrong with the boiler went bad. It's expensive when a problem crosses the gray area between two professions.