As I wrote last Friday, I wanted a second opinion about the problems we’ve been having with our heating system. Our trainer suggested the company he’d used, A-1 Heating and Cooling, and they sent out a tech today, Steve.

He spent a long time in the attic, and when he came down, he had pictures and options for us. He showed video of the furnace lighting up and belching flames – it’s called “rollout,” caused by too much gas, and it’s not a good thing. There’s a rollout safety switch that senses it and turns off the gas; a bit later, the furnace tries to light again and there’s less gas, so it works. But it’s not safe. He reduced the gas pressure temporarily to avoid rollout, but that’s not a real fix.

He also found condensation that had leaked out of poorly sealed PVC pipes and was accumulating.

The good news is that he didn’t propose replacing the furnace, just the gas valve and resealing the pipes – it’ll cost about 15% of what it would cost to replace the furnace. So we said “yes”.

I didn’t get a chance to take a walk today, so I have no new photos; instead, I found a photo I took on this date in 2019, when we were at the Angkor Thom Temple in Siem Riep, Cambodia. Our guide posed us so we could hold up one of the faces carved into the walls of the temple.

I was putting stuff away before our house cleaner’s visit this morning when Diane called me over to the patio door and showed me a dead squirrel on the deck. When our house cleaner arrived, I told her about the squirrel so she wouldn’t be surprised if she went outside, and then we left to run our normal Tuesday errands.

While we were out, I called County Vector Control; they told me that they didn’t deal with dead animals and suggested I call the City of San Jose’s Animal Control department (they serve Los Gatos, too). After fighting my way through their voice menus, I was connected to a dispatcher who told me that they didn’t deal with squirrels, and that all I had to do was wrap up the corpse and put it in the garbage.

When we got home, we left our masks on and donned gloves; then I got out the long-handled shovel and some plastic bags. The squirrel’s corpse was quite stiff, so it was easy to pick it up and put it in a bag, which Diane put in two more layers of bags; we tossed the masks and gloves into the outer bag, and put the whole thing in the garbage bin.

The day got brighter after that – Diane got her second hepatitis A shot at Costco, and as long as we were there, I picked up a discounted Microsoft 365 renewal, eight bottles of wine, and quite a bit more.

There was yet more shopping to be done, so we walked to Safeway to pick up some yogurt in smaller-than-Costco quantities. On the way home, we walked past these roses – as I said, the day got brighter as it went on!

I also received a “Certificate of Proficiency” from Toastmasters International for completing the “Engaging Humor” path with the speech I gave last night, so now I’m officially a proficient humorist, or maybe just a proficient engager. I’d put it on my résumé but I don’t have one any more.