Triumphant Saturday

I woke up chilled around 7:30 AM on Saturday. I checked and sure enough, I’d run out of propane during the night. I hooked up another tank and fired that puppy up. Then I made eight cups of coffee, waited until it brewed and drank a cup, posting the Blog entry.

When the house was finally back to 66 degrees, I went back to bed (I had read for four hours during another insomniac night).

At around 10:00 AM, I got up, shaved and showered. After another cup of coffee, I headed out for the nearest Ace hardware. Unfortunately, this is now in Garden City on Ford Road (about four miles from here). I took along my old thermostat and explained my problem to a helpful sales person. I told her I “thought” I bought the old one at Murray’s, but couldn’t be certain, and that I needed one with a RH and the RC connectors. None of which was indicated on the outside packaging.

I asked about their return policy and she said, “Unfortunately, you can’t return it.” I hope to God that Home Depot doesn’t have that same philosophy or I’m out another $43.00.

But, she said my old one looked like a Lux, which is the Ace brand. She said to wait a few minutes and went in the back. She came back about five minutes later and said she had pulled up the owner’s manual online and they do have those connectors!

This one is a little smaller, but has most of the same features. So, I paid another $34.00 and headed home.

Once there, I installed the plate, hooked up the wires and programmed the unit. Then, I turned the furnace on, manually overrode the temperature setting and, in a minute, the furnace kicked on! Hurray!! Exactly six days later, my furnace worked!!

I shut off the propane heater so it could cool and then go back in the garage. I tried to call Michelle’s husband to thank him for his help, but got a wrong number (I must have written it down wrong). So, I’ll tell her on Monday.

I went back to my book with another cup of coffee. It’s not as warm as Thursday and Friday, but it would be a good day to start raking the front yard and picking up the winter trash. But, right now, I’m just content with being pleased.

Eventually, with all the sunshine, I decided walking around the yard would be nice. So, I did. I got a couple of pictures for you, but was dismayed at the trash, both in the front ditch and the back garden (there is TONS of it against the back wall). Sigh…

I came back in and posted the pictures. Then I started the first of many loads of laundry for this weekend by stripping the bed. While that was washing, I went back outside to get the mail. While I was there, I pulled out the driveway snowplow wands and hung up the forsythia wreath to herald the coming of Spring (which starts on Sunday I believe).

I called my friend B___ to let him know I got the furnace running. He asked about the kitchen plugs and I told him I’d been too focused on the furnace to worry about them (I’ve been lighting the burners on the stove with a barbeque lighter, so it was merely annoying).

But, I thought I better get back to it. I checked the breakers again and they still both “on.” I remembered what my daughter Amy had told me had told me about having a similar problem that turned out to be a tripped Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter (GFCI), so I checked: Bingo! But, it wouldn’t reset! I turned off the power and tried again. Still nothing.

So, either that plug has failed (it’s been here since before I was) or I got a “call an electrician” problem.

It was after 5:00 PM so I resolved to pick up another GFCI on Sunday and see if that worked. I used the rest of the leftover mashed potatoes to make some of those “Fran’s Potatoes Cakes.” I had added a handful of my frozen chives to the original mashed potatoes (to kick them up a notch) and it worked well in the potatoes cakes, too.

I ate them watching TV. I didn’t remember the “Super Moon” until about 9:30 (too late for moonrise) but I went out on the patio to check it out. It didn’t look that much bigger, but it certainly was brighter than usual. There were moon shadows everywhere (I felt like Cat Stevens).

I went back to watching TV and dozed off about 10:30 PM. When I woke up at 1:00 AM, I started reading to fall back asleep. I got caught up in the book and when it was done, so was I. I shut off the light and went to bed for real.