Scattered Thoughts . . .

Two lines of severe thunderstorms rolled through our area last night just a couple of days after catastrophic flooding.  This threatened a repeat of the flooding only hours after most of the flooding at receded.   There is no doubt that there were severe thunderstorms in these two lines of severe weather but it just barely clipped us.  Most of the severe weather was slightly north of us.  We got about an inch of rain and the sky was like a midwestern light show of constant lightning and rumbling thunder.   I've lived all across the country and I have to say that the most common thunderstorms in the midwest are what would be considered very severe thunderstorms in the northeast.  These common midwestern thunderstorms are ominous with lightning every second or two, heavy downpours, damaging hail, ferocious wind, with constant rumbling of thunder.  Last night, it was easy to tell that this type of weather was in our area but, fortunately, the truly severe storms were just barely north

O ur furnace was fixed this afternoon and it is now heating the house again so that is very good news. There is one more part he wants to replace...  just a small contact cap that goes in the ignition transformer... but he didn't have one on his truck.  He is off tomorrow but said he will stop by in the morning to install a new contact cap.  I don't really know the name of this part but it is an electrical contact point in the shape of a small cap so I'm calling it a contact cap here.   This older corroded contact cap is giving us inaccurate resistance readings.  These readings give a reading in ohms indicating the brightness of the flame.  The lower the resistance, the brighter the flame.  He adjusted the fuel pump to get the best resistance numbers possible but he's thinking the numbers will be even lower with a contact cap that is in better condition.  This is important because the ignition control box will shut down the furnace if these readings are too high.  Too h

I only got about two hours of sleep last night due to furnace problems and this furnace nonsense is seriously affecting my health.  Our furnace is still not working as it should.   I nursed it all night long last night to keep the house above 60 degrees.  Then it failed to ignite again this morning, twice.  I tried bleeding the line but that produced no air.  While bleeding, it did ignite, again.  It then failed to ignite again on the next cycle...  and again...  so, sometimes it ignites, sometimes it doesn't...  sometimes it loses ignition in mid-cycle, sometimes it doesn't.   In the meantime, we've called the fuel company and they are sending someone as soon as possible at no charge.  No charge for this service helps alleviate some of the pain of this ongoing problem but this is still frustrating and nerve-racking.  My health is still quite poor so any little thing seems to trigger significant health issues setting me back in my recovery.  Stress is a known trigger.  The

M y health seems to be recovering over the past day or two, finally, so that is good.  I feel like I should be much farther along in my recovery at this point but the past day or two have seen a nice improvement in my overall health.  Unfortunately, we have other problems that are cutting into our sleep though which won't help my health at all. We learned recently that our furnace is on borrowed time now...  at the perfect wrong time considering the current frigid weather.  We spent around $800 just to hold us over through this heating season but the furnace is not running well.  Replacing the furnace in winter is rough because we would be without heat for at least a day.  If other parts need to be ordered, we could be without heat for more than a day.  That simply won't work in the dead of winter so we're trying to just make it through this heating season before we tackle installing a new furnace.   The temperatures have plunged well into sub-zero territory.  To make this

I had mentioned in a previous blog entry that we had to call a service technician to repair our furnace.  He made a bunch of necessary repairs but we still had one intermittent recurring issue.   I kept an eye on all the parts that the service technician replaced and I have to say that it is good that we called for service.  Some of the parts were cracked, deteriorated and corroded.  Those parts definitely needed to be replaced.  The service technician was at our house one night and then the following day doing repairs.  It really hurts when you have to call for service during the night! The day after his second day working on the furnace, we noticed some odd sounds coming from the furnace.  I was still feeling miserable so I was of no help.  I can barely think straight nevermind work on a furnace.  Sheila called the fuel company again to schedule service.  It would be a week before the service technician could fit us in again unless we wanted to pay the emergency visit fee again.  Th

Last night was one of those nights when you simply cannot sleep and you end up getting up out of bed at 5:30am because you know sleeping is a lost cause.  This is exceptionally rare for me but it was my night last night. I was having a little bit of difficulty breathing last night after going to bed but I wouldn't call those breathing difficulties anything more than mild.  Needless to say, that was the start of my lack of sleeping.  I was lying there wondering, "Should I go get my inhaler and epinephrine?  Or, will this pass?"  The problem is that if I get up to retrieve my inhaler and epinephrine, that act alone will cause me to lose some sleep because I'll need to calm down again and slow my heartrate down again in order to have any chance of falling asleep.  If I need to take epinephrine, that will keep me up for a while too.  So, I laid there wondering what to do which is also a sign that my breathing difficulties were no worse than mild. Then, I couldn't get

I've spent the past 18 days struggling with chronic and serious health issues related to a failed attempt at a colonoscopy. It has been a rough few weeks and a few weeks of nothingness... just trying to get through one moment to the next.  After constant and consistent extra medications, I am finally beginning to feel more like myself again. I'm not feeling "good"... I am not anywhere near what is considered "normal" for me... but I am feeling decent enough to safely attempt a few small chores around the house. I even started back on a very light version of my daily physical therapy for my spinal injuries (which is much needed!).   Needless to say, after all this time of nothingness, there is a lot to be done around here because everything, other than my health, has been ignored and neglected.  I did some preventive maintenance on my furnace... then I had to get the thermostat in working order again. The heat kicked on after this little bit of wor

I'm still trying to get the master bathroom put back together but other things keep getting in the way. My health has been an issue (surprise, surprise) so that delayed things a bit... The weather has been an issue on many days causing delays... snow and rain have kept all my tools under cover in the shed... We had the grandchildren staying with us all weekend... And, then we had a surprise electrical problem which demanded instant attention because we lost power to the furnace and we are currently in the middle of winter! I was in the bathroom, getting the room prepared to start working on the new flooring (new, but temporary, until we can completely renovate this bathroom).  The furnace had just kicked on and about 30 seconds later the room went dark and the furnace shut down. "Uh-oh..." I immediately looked toward the hallway to see if the entire house lost power...  no, the hallway was still illuminated. I went to the circuit breaker panel to see if a brea