I didn't sleep well last night at all. Just before I went to bed around midnight, I discovered that the furnace wasn't working. I knew it was going to be a cold night, so I was determined to fix the thing before I went to sleep. Easier said than done. Several years ago my HVAC guy taught me how to fix several common furnace problems myself. I think he took pity on me since I was calling them so often. The repair didn't get off to a great start. I couldn't find the special tool I use to get the cover off the furnace. I couldn't find any fine grit sandpaper either.
The flame sensor on our furnace gets dirty a lot. This is always the first thing I look for. When the sensor is dirty it can't detect the pilot light flame and shuts the gas off. It's basically a safety device. There is an enormous amount of dust in the utility room, since we are constantly doing laundry. A normal flame sensor will stay clean for years at a time. Ours goes bad every six months. The fix is easy enough. You carefully remove the flame sensor and clean it with an emery board or a piece of fine grit sandpaper. Too bad the sensor is located in such an awkward place or this repair would be a piece of cake. Eventually, I got the balky cover off the furnace and removed the flame sensor. I didn't have any sandpaper last night, but figured that one of those abrasive kitchen sponges would do. I cut a small piece off the sponge and carefully scraped the dirty coating off the sensor. An hour later, I turned the furnace back on and fired it up. It worked.
I must be a glutton for punishment, because this morning I decided to remove all the accumulated soap scum from the shower stall. For some reason soap scum becomes hard as a rock on the glass shower doors. It's almost impossible to remove. Janet bought some sort of motorized scrub brush that she saw on TV recently and I thought I'd give it a try. Even though the commercial said that this thing could clean dirty tiles in seconds, it wasn't up to the task. I had to use the same abrasive sponge I used to clean the flame sensor and a lot of elbow grease. The shower stall still isn't sparkling clean, but it looks a lot better.
By the time I finished my housecleaning chores I was too tired to go to the gym. I went anyway because it was Sunday. I always go to the gym on Sunday. The hour I spent cleaning the soap scum off the shower doors was much more strenuous than the hour I spent at the gym, but I'm sure my workout did me some good anyway. I've become a believer in going to the gym on Sunday. Hey, it's not like I have anything important to do on Sunday anyway and it's always relaxing to shoot the basketball.
I hope we don't have another hard freeze before Winter is officially over. Everything is growing so nicely now that it would be a shame if freezing weather caused all the wildflowers to die. The redbud and dogwood trees are in full bloom and I've already seen several wildflowers that don't usually appear until late March. So far, this is the earliest Spring I can remember.
I didn't even watch the Oscars tonight. Janet usually likes to watch these awards shows, but she didn't watch either. I used to love the world of movies and movie making. Janet and I would go see a new film almost every weekend. I don't know if movies have changed or if we have changed. I do know I'll never see La La Land. No interest whatsoever. I still enjoy science and science fiction, so I'd probably enjoy Arrival and Hidden Figures. I'll never see these films in a theater. Someday when things are exceptionally slow, I'll probably rent them on iTunes and watch them on my computer. The big screen has lost its magic.
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