The joys of (old) home ownership
Our furnace crew came back and after 3 hours of changing out thermostats, rewiring and otherwise struggling to figure out why the newly-repaired furnace would not work, made an interesting discovery. A fuse box, with one fuse for the furnace motor, had been installed on the wall, and then the sheet metal furnace - about […]
The good news and the bad news…
The good news: a San Jose firm was able to repair our 53-year-old furnace, once they’d located a replacement blower motor. Yay! I met the repairmen here a little after 4:30 (thank you Caltrain 4:05 ‘baby bullet’ which pulled into Palo Alto at 4:26), where my dear accomplice was waiting, motor running to meet the […]
A crescent moon…
A crescent moon awaited Cassie and I as we stepped into the 22-degee air this morning here in Menlo Park. Our furnace is still out, but the Fry’s space heaters are keeping things under control. Hoping to get some antique furnace parts located today…
Better living through system failure?
So, yesterday evening’s furnace failure sent us scrambling to Fry’s for a couple of electric space heaters. We bought two models: a tower unit with a thermostat and lotsa features for $80, and and a smaller, dumber machine that just blows hot air for all it’s worth, on a 4-hour timer, for $60. Both models […]
The family that can’t catch a break…
As temperatures in Northern California have dipped to ten-year lows. our trusty, 54-year old furnace, an old-fashioned sheetmetal and cast-iron ‘upside down’ forced-air model popular in the 50s, has decided to fail.
Despite religious filter change and annual oiling of the motor, said motor failed last night shortly after Linda got home from a full-day vestry […]
Saturday morning: geekin’ it….
Linda’s off to a church vestry retreat this morning, leaving Cassie and I to our own devices. After a pleasant stroll (2.5 miles) through the neighborhood, I had a couple dozen pix of local oaks and othe subjects captured on the Lumix with, of all things, a Red (#2) filter. Turns out the Lumix has […]
Wow…
So, we worked from home Thursday and Friday (thanks, Adobe!), and these two days turned out to be the hardest this week! Once I was back on ‘the grid,’ meaning Adobe colleagues could see me on email, IM and the Exchange calendar, the pent-up work items began flowing in (which is just fine - it […]
Leopard MIA from Macworld?
Hmmmm… we have a conference called ‘Macworld,’ traditionally devoted to afficianadoes of a certain brand of computer. That computer runs Mac OS X and those same zealots have been waiting for news of the latest version, 10.5 aka Leopard. But, ohmigosh, there’s no sign of Mac OS X 10.5 at Macworld, at least according to […]
34 degrees in Menlo this morning (again)
Cassie and I opted for the coziness of our family room, rather than our walk (which we will get in when things warm up a bit), though the cold did not stop the female Dawn Jogger from running the full Dish circuit. Temperatures have been in the 60s back East (I talked to my Aunt […]
A very happy Linda…
So, tonight, I took the early ‘baby bullet’ from San Jose to Palo Alto so Linda could pick me up and begin to work through a list of looming errands: blood work, chemo prescriptions, ‘haircut’ (or buzz) and ordering a new, healthy mattress for our new bedroom furniture (which arrives Friday) among other things.
As luck […]