Not on Friday

Well, I can think of one thing you won't say "TGIF" to:

having something break that requires a repair person to come out.

Yeah. This morning, I realized I'd never thrown the gas switch on my furnace to 'off.' This is a safety feature for the summer months, and I had noticed occasionally a tiny, brief-lived whiff of natural gas when the ac blower came on. (I figured it was not enough to be dangerous as the closed-up house didn't seem to acquire any noticeable gas smell while I was gone).

So this morning, I pulled off the front panel and flipped the switch. About that same time, we had one of the very brief brownouts we get regularly, where everything turns off for about 15 seconds and then pops right back on.

Well, the panels were very hard to replace - hard to handle, also, I think the sheet metal has warped slightly. I had to fight with them and then didn't get them on totally right. Then I noticed the display on the electronic thermostat was off.

Crud.

So I tried replacing the panels again. Nothing. So I sighed, called my AC place, and made an appointment. The complicating factor was that I had a dental checkup at 11 am. So the person said, "We'll send someone out after 12:30 pm" and I was fine with that.

(The dental checkup went fine. I had been told when I made the appointment - which was pretty much the ONLY one I could make for the next two months, given my schedule - that there would be "no dentist in" to read my x-rays or check my teeth for decay, and I might have to come back another time, but it turned out it was just the younger dentist who was out; the older one, who I had seen when I first started going to this practice, was in, and I was just as happy to have him check out my teeth. The only problems I have at this point are staining and tartar. The tartar is apparently a genetic thing; some people make more than others. And the staining is my tea drinking, which I am loath to give up)

So I ran home, ate lunch, and waited. About 12:30 someone did call, said "We'll be out after our lunch break." So I figured, that will be 1:30 give or take 20 minutes.

And I waited.

And waited.

1:30 came and went.
2 pm came and went.
2:30 came and went.

I started to worry - once, when I got an electrician out for something, the receptionist there totally messed up and wrote down BOTH the wrong address and phone number, so there was no one home at the house he showed up to and he couldn't even call me to get the right address.

So I called the place back. Got the machine. Figured they'd maybe taken an early weekend, wondered whether it was worth going out to install the window unit in my bedroom between rainstorms.

Tried calling again 20 minutes later - got someone, she said the guy still had me scheduled. So okay.

Finally the guy called at about 20 of 4 to say he was on his way.

He took the panels off, tried them again, had as much trouble as I did getting them back on. We waited the obligatory 5 minute lock-out time; nothing.

So he tried the various pieces and parts of the system (at one point I heard duct tape being deployed; I don't know if that was to hold the panels on better or temporarily hold down the lock-out switch). Blower worked. The outdoor unit worked.

Conclusion: the theromostat got fried. Apparently this is a not-uncommon thing that happens, especially given our frequent power outages. So he went out to his truck and got a new one.

The new one is not programmable or wi-fi linkable, but I am okay with that. I figure fewer brains in the thing means less chance of those brains getting scrambled by power blips. Also, I used the programmable feature for a while when I first had the thing, but I quickly learned that if we had a power outage of anywhere from 30 seconds to five minutes, the thing "forgot" what time it was and I had to reset the clock, and if the power was out for more than five minutes, the thing forgot ALL its programming and I'd have to go through and painstakingly reset the times (there were four times per day: wake up time, leave-house time, return-home time, bedtime) and the temperatures for them. And the thing would default to a temperature of 85 F (if the ac was on) or 60 F (if the heat was on) if it lost its programming and you didn't reprogram it. So that would not be too cool when you were away for an extended time.

So finally, I just went to a set-and-hold pattern: pick a comfortable but not too ruinously power-using temperature, and punch the hold button. If I was going to be away for very long I'd turn the temperature either up or down depending on if it was summer or winter.

And I never used the wi-fi thing. No smartphone to program it with, and also, I am just paranoid enough about people hacking those things.

So the new, slightly-dumber thermostat is probably an improvement.

I don't know if I'll get a bill; I assume this is under warranty as it was only about 2 years old.