Day 4706

Good grief. Our furnace went out on the coldest night of the year. It wasn't the flame sensor this time so I couldn't fix it myself. The gas was coming on, but the fan wasn't working so no air was reaching the vents. Since there was no air circulating through the furnace, it would quickly overheat and shut down. 

As luck would have it, the HVAC guy I've been using for over twenty years retired a few months ago. I didn't know who to call until I remembered that the plumbing company I've been using has a HVAC division. I called their emergency number and about a half hour later one of their on-call technicians called me back. He said he could come over, but advised against it, telling me that the company's overtime and weekend rates were ridiculously high. He said that if we were cold, we could stay in a nice hotel for the weekend for a lot less than their emergency rates and asked if I could wait until Monday. The rates definitely were ridiculously high and I asked who would pay this kind of money. Hospitals, commercial companies, and others who absolutely could not afford to have their heating and cooling interrupted evidently. This company is good but they don't do much residential work. I decided to wait until Monday.

We bundled up for our sunrise walk this morning. Dawn, like all of our Dalmatians, seemed to like the cold. I was warm enough because I was wearing two down coats. Winter arrived rather suddenly this year. Only a few weeks ago I was wearing a t-shirt and shorts. A hot breakfast warmed me up a bit, but the house has stayed cold all day. I have resisted the urge to monkey around with the furnace because I would probably only make things worse. The technician I talked to this morning said that I probably need a new fan motor and capacitors. I wished the guy could have come out today but I wasn't about to pay $700 extra for a weekend service call. 

I had a hard time starting the car when I went to get groceries this morning. WTF? I have a brand new battery. The battery is still under warranty, but I'll have to find time to go to the repair shop that sold me the battery on Monday. At any rate, the saga of broken stuff continues and I can't seem to catch a break. Once the car was warm it started fine, but I don't want an unreliable car if I've got to get up early to go to the airport.

I probably will need to go to the airport soon. I got a message from NASA today saying the the Causeway bridge has been repaired and that the Titusville entrance to Kennedy Space Center is usable again. Damn. This took away my best excuse to scrap the trip and stay home. I guess I should just go through with the trip. I've already committed to write an article for SpaceFlight Magazine and I'm a bit worried that if I skipped this launch it might affect my ability to get a press pass in the future. Oh, well. Like it or not, I'm headed back to Florida.

It never did get warm today but I took my walk in the park anyway. This was a winter walk with a sweater and a warm coat. There are a lot fewer cyclists and joggers in the winter. The weather was nice this afternoon, but I was still a bit chilly. Tomorrow I'll go mall walking and start to pack for the Artemis launch. I'd better get some warm blankets out for tonight. I't s going to be very cold in the house.

Jada is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4096

The washing machine is working again. The repair technician arrived right on time with a brown box containing the expensive new circuit board. The board must have been located in an inaccessible place because he had to practically disassemble the entire machine to install it. I wonder where appliance repairmen get their training? This guy seemed very familiar with my machine even though it was never a popular brand and hasn't been manufactured for quite some time. I was pleased when the technician put the washing machine back together and turned it on to test it. It worked. There was always a chance that the new motor controller board wouldn't solve the problem. The motor itself might have been faulty. All is good now until the next thing breaks on this machine. Replacing the aging machine piece by piece is still easier than trying to squeeze a new machine into our tiny utility room.

The washing machine wasn't the only thing that I got working again today. Part of my new company website has been non-functional ever since I redesigned it several months ago. It always looked nice on my desktop computer, but never really worked when I looked at it on my phone. I finally found a tech support person who could help me this afternoon and was able to repair the broken code. The solution was fairly obvious in retrospect. I felt a bit foolish for not being able to figure this out myself. Apparently, one of the many hazards of growing older is the inability to understand complex problems on your own. I used to be a lot better at website design when I did this stuff every day.

I got my reservations confirmed at the Prude Ranch for my trip out to McDonald Observatory, so it appears that I'm good to go. The astrophotography workshop isn't being held until mid-May, but it never hurts to plan ahead. Oddly, there is a big regional star party out at the ranch a few weeks before my arrival. If the two events had been closer together it might have been fun to attend both. Never mind. I just read the Covid rules for the WesTex Star Party. They are pretty restrictive. Since only ten people will be attending the astrophotography workshop, dealing with Covid restrictions at the observatory will be a lot easier. I'm already familiar with McDonald observatory rules anyway. I was out there last October.

I think I've figured out why my Apple Watch activity stats have been so dismal this month. It all has to do with how the watch measures things. Really the only things it is able to measure are the speed you are walking and your heart rate. Everything else is extrapolated using some sort of algorithm. Today, I was feeling pretty good so I thought I'd see what would happen if I just walked a little faster. Speed is apparently a lot more important to the algorithm than heart rate. I managed to cut four minutes per mile off my recent times and it made a huge difference. My activity scores look just like they used to. Oddly, my feet didn't hurt any more walking fast than walking slow. I was a lot more tired when I returned home though. I think I'll go back to walking slow tomorrow.

I wish Dawn didn't frighten so easily. Predictably, the repair technician scared her again, even though he was working in the other end of the house. The guy was only here about an hour, but it took Dawn the rest of the day to chill out again. She still enjoyed her walk, but ate more grass than usual. She always eats grass when she's nervous.

I keep reading that we might have hazardous weather this weekend. There are two storms headed our way. The first one is supposed to bring massive amounts of snow to Colorado. The second one might bring tornados to Texas. I hope the forecasts are wrong. We've already had enough bad weather for one year. I'm ready for a nice warm Spring.

Lance is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4094

The washing machine is still not working. The technician says that the motor is not communicating with the motor controller logic board. I asked if there might just be a lose wire. Nope. I need a new logic board. Will this solve my problem? Maybe. Once the machine can talk to the motor we'll be able to see if there is anything wrong with the motor itself. Life was a lot simpler when major appliances were simple mechanical beasts. Now, everything is basically a computer. The part is supposed to arrive on Friday and I hope it works. I definitely don't want to go to the laundromat again.

Dawn didn't bark at the repair technician, but I could tell she was scared. She retreated to the bedroom as soon as she heard the knock on the door and didn't come out until long after the technician had left. It doesn't take much to frighten Dawn. I wish I could explain to her that being without a washing machine for an extended length of time is a lot more frightening than having a repair technician in the house.

I learned that there will be another astrophotography workshop out at McDonald Observatory in May. This will be an advanced workshop that picks up where the first one I attended left off. Do I go? I probably will, but it's hard to decide. I love the dark skies of the Davis Mountains, but I hate the long drive out there. Driving is surprisingly tiring when you've got a bad shoulder. Travel can get expensive too. I guess I should continue to do things while I still can though. One of these days in the not too distant future, it will be too late.

It still bothers me that my Fitbit says I'm not as active as I was last year. How can this be? I feel like I'm more active than I ever was. It probably just takes more effort to do things that used to be easy. I've definitely slowed down, but I'm moving as fast as I can. It's discouraging to see overweight people pass me in the park, but what can you do? Arthritis is real and I still don't believe in strong pain medication unless it is absolutely necessary. I'm going to keep moving, but in a few years my nickname will probably be turtle.

Bulky trash pick up is next week, so we've only got a few more days to clean up the yard and get everything out to the curb before the trucks arrive. The freeze really made a mess of things. I haven't seen so much dead vegetation in years. Hopefully a lot of the plants and vegetation will come back when things get warmer. It took years for most of these shrubs to grow and I just don't have the energy to replace them all at this point. We will get new grass though. Dawn loves to lie in the grass and sun herself on nice days. The dog deserves some decent grass.

I hope I have more energy tomorrow. I've felt lethargic all day. It's hard to get motivated when your feet hurt and you are constantly blowing your nose. This is no time to nap though. I need to get familiar with my new camera if I'm going to take it out to the observatory in May. I need to decide whether I can still afford to go to a launch in Florida this Spring. I've applied to go to the Starliner and Crew-2 launches, but haven't heard whether I've been accepted. The yard needs a lot of work and I haven't been up on the roof in weeks. There's an abundance of things to do, but I still just want to take a long nap.

Ely is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day