Day 2558 - Blogiversary

Today didn't go well. It was cold when I woke up this morning and I quickly discovered that the furnace had gone out. Perfect timing, since the temperature is supposed to be in the low teens this weekend. It's really hard to get my HVAC guy to make a rush service call at this time of year, so I decided to try to fix the furnace myself. I always watch what the repair guys are doing when they come out to the house. I'm certainly no furnace expert, but I have learned a few things over the years. One of the most common reasons that a furnace goes out is a dirty flame sensor. I got out my tools and of course I couldn't find the right ones anymore. The utility room seemed a lot smaller than it did the last time I attempted a furnace repair. I felt too old to do this sort of thing anymore.

Eventually I got the cover off the furnace, but I didn't have the right tool to remove the sensor. The prospect of spending the day in a very cold house with two demanding dogs wasn't very appealing, so I tried to come up with a creative solution. After some experimentation I discovered that I was able to reach my left hand behind the panel where the flame sensor was attached and feel the sensor itself. I got a small piece of sandpaper and used it to polish the sensor probe. Although I couldn't see what I was doing, it felt right. After struggling in the small room for about forty minutes, I put the furnace back together and turned on the heat. The furnace lit like a charm and I saved $100. I wish I knew more about furnaces. There are hundreds of things that can go wrong, but I am only capable of fixing two of them.

UPS lost the package that I was supposed to pick up today. This is the third time this has happened this year. I redirect the packages to a convenient customer service center about four miles away so I won't have to wait for the UPS man all day. According to the UPS website, this process is foolproof, but the website lies. I'll get an e-mail saying my package is ready to pick up and then when I arrive at the will-call desk, the package isn't there. This drives me nuts, because the people at the service center are never in a hurry to find the package. I've never lost a shipment entirely, but sometimes it takes them days to track down the missing package. I've never received a good explanation for why this happens so often.

Janet had to leave for work really early this morning, so had to walk the dogs myself in the morning and then again in the afternoon. This takes a really long time, since Dot's walk is so slow. I could easily spend all day walking these dogs. Even though I took Dot outside again and again, she still managed to make a mess in the house. At least we still had running water so I could do laundry. There was a big water leak at the other end of our street and some of my neighbors have had their water turned off all day.

My cold is getting worse. I've added nasal congestion and laryngitis to the sore throat I had yesterday. Basically, when you add a bad cold to all the other problems I deal with on a daily basis, it makes for a pretty bad day. I had three articles to write today, but I only managed to finish one of them because the dogs were constantly interrupting me. There wasn't even the usual sleepy period this morning. They kept me busy all day long.

Tomorrow is probably going to be even busier than today. I still have two more articles to finish and I know I'm going to continue fretting about the lost package until I get an acceptable answer from UPS. Dot has a big exam at the cancer center too. We'll be doing an ultrasound scan, x-rays, and some additional blood work. I"m almost certain that Dot will poop in the car.

I hope I still have time to go out for breakfast tomorrow morning. I need a little time to myself and another Big Boy breakfast sandwich like I had last week sounds really good.

Jasper is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day