Beautifully Warm Saturday

I did not envy the two furnace installers their jobs.  Two full days, the second lasting 13 hours, in a very cold and short crawlspace.  They were on their knees or bent over for all those hours, fitting pipe and soldering connections only to have, in the last few hours, when the electricity and water was connected to their work, and they were past tired, to set to work on any "mistakes".  We had a bad switch.  Thermostats wired white/green instead of white/ red which meant the upstairs and the controller couldn't communicate. And, thankfully, only one leaking connection.  They left us at 8 pm with the new furnace cycling on and off.  Hitting the high limit shut off repeatedly as it tried to heat water in the tank and listen to the calls for heat from the 5 zones.  The hot water for showers has priority over all the zones.  As it should. A really rough start for a new furnace, I think. But that's the way they all get started. Life isn't easy for a boiler/burner.

G went down to check on everything before we went to bed as the installers had asked us to do.  To see if water was leaking or oil spraying or electricity sparking.  Everything looked fine.  The new boiler/burner doesn't "rumble" like the old one.  And the rooms, even set on lower temps, seem much warmer.  I learned that this "great room" we use all day (and which is never warm unless the sun is shining) isn't going to be warm because the thermostat was installed too high up on the wall.  By the time it senses the need for heat, we are near freezing.  So it is now set on 68 or 70 and the room is a nice 65.  The foyer is warm also so it must be connected to this thermostat.  Who knew?

G and I left around noon yesterday (the house was cold) to drive down to Portland.  We spent sometime at the bookstore and then had a nice lunch at Longhorn.  I had a BLT salad with some deliciously grilled sirloin.  And I ate G's French Fries.  I am arranging these "lunchtime" outings to get him used to walking and standing so when he goes to work on Monday he will have half a chance to make it through lunch.  He managed to find parking close to the places we visited.  I had wanted to visit Whole Foods but I was tired and just wanted to go home.  So, the little grocery shopping I had to do, was done locally.

Yesterday morning I had to eat my cereal with 1% milk.  I had used up all my soy milk.  I was surprised to find I didn't care for the taste of milk.  Amazing how you can change a lifetime of drinking regular milk in just a year. If the soy yogurt wasn't so expensive and hard to find, I would switch there as well.

I purchased a trashy romance and the newest Nigella Kitchen cookbook yesterday. Nigella makes some interesting Indian food and I have wanted to try making more Indian style dishes this year. For myself.

That's about all I have to say.  I have laundry to do, sheets on the bed to change, shirts to iron and when all that is done, floors to vacuum and wash.  The furnace people were in and out all afternoon and I have salt crusted bootprints everywhere.  When all is back in order, I plan to sit still and read my romance for the remainder of the day.  Mushroom pasta for dinner.  G's favorite pasta.  Oh, and a very hot shower before the book reading.  Riley has just reminded me to fit in a dog walk.  Before the shower.