I thought we were going Earnest Hemingway there.

It was a good remote. It was a strong remote. A remote for a man, who'd seen things, experienced things, hard things, unsentimental. I'd changed many channels with it. The Hunting Channel, The War Channel. It never complained. None of us ever complained that year. Not that year. It was that kind of year, when the wind blew cold, and the rain fell hard, and the women fell harder and blew colder still. But we had the remote. No one could take that from us. It bonded us, brothers of common cause, turned outwards against an implacable enemy, ready to test ourselves, eager to test ourselves.