Day 4133

It was cold when I woke up this morning. I got up and looked at the furnace. Just as I expected, a red light was flashing. The furnace wouldn't ignite. I thought I was going to be able to avoid fixing the furnace this Spring, but I guess my luck ran out. If the furnace won't light, the problem is almost always a dirty flame sensor. It's not hard to fix. It's just a nuisance. I shut the furnace off, unscrewed several access panels so I could reach the sensor and got out my sandpaper. Sanding the flame sensor cleans it so that it will turn on the gas whenever the pilot light comes on. I've done this many times, but I wish someone had told me how to fix this earlier. When I first bought the house, the HVAC guys would come out, tinker around for a while, and then charge me a lot of money. I didn't know that all they were doing was cleaning the flame sensor.

An hour later I had everything put back together and we had heat again. This fix ought to last until next winter. There can't possibly be too many more cold mornings left. I was actually surprised that it was 40 degrees this morning because later in the day I was wearing shorts. That's what happens this time of year. The furnace comes on in the morning and the air conditioner comes on in the afternoon.

After breakfast we took Dawn to her alternate park for a walk and then got ice cream cones on the way home. This is getting to be a Sunday ritual. Dawn gets excited to do something different and seems to really enjoy these outings. We had one minor problem when she appeared lost at one point and refused to move. We thought the new park was familiar to her by now, but apparently not. To get Dawn started again, Janet sits about ten feet in front of Dawn and calls her. Dawn starts moving forward in small, jerky steps and finally she starts walking normally again. By the time we were eating ice cream cones, she had probably totally forgotten about the incident.

Since bulky trash day is tomorrow, I thought I'd spend a little more time cleaning up the yard. Anything I couldn't take care of today will have to wait until next month. I cleared weeds and brush from an area in front of the house and quickly discovered that weeding is not a good activity for someone with a bad back.    I have a lot more sympathy now for people with back problems. A bad back and almost any type of yard work isn't a good combination. I do feel a little better than I did yesterday, so hopefully this problem is just temporary.

After a short nap, I took my daily walk. I never was all that fast, but now I'm walking slower than ever. I'll have to forget about Fitbit goals for a while, but at least I'm still moving. The park was really crowded today. There were Little League games on the baseball diamonds and lots of people having picnics. There are always people feeding bread to the ducks despite signs saying that bread is bad for ducks and that you should feed them dry corn or peas instead. I see messages on the Internet all the time about bread being bad for ducks, but apparently nobody listens.

The extra memory I ordered for my laptop is apparently lost in the mail. I'll have to check on that tomorrow. I also need to reserve a car for my trip to the observatory next month. I keep reading articles that say rental cars are in short supply now. Apparently most of the rental companies sold off excess inventory during the pandemic and now that people are traveling again, they don't have enough cars. I won't have to worry about getting a rent car in Florida for a while. I can't figure out how to get NASA to reinstate my press credentials.

All in all it was a very nice day. Nothing exciting happened, but the yard looks a little nicer and we had a delicious dinner. They say that the Mars helicopter will fly tomorrow. The next Starship prototype and the Space X Crew-2 mission will launch later in the week. I feel out of the loop now, but maybe I can get back to attending some of these launches later in the year. 

Mattie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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