Floof Appeal

Floof Appeal (floofinition) 1. A indefinable essence emitted by some individuals which draws animals to them.

In use: “With Debra’s floof appeal, whenever she visited someone with pets, they inevitably gravitated to her, prompting jealousy in some because cats would stay in her lap and dogs would lick her hands and sit beside her, tail wagging like they were getting ready to fly away.”

2. Personality or looks which animals emanate or display which attracts humans or other animals.

In use: “Though glowing with floof appeal, Corky was a little standoffish and shy, but her looks made everyone want to befriend her.”

3. Urgent communication regarding the state or condition of an animal, or an appeal for help with an animal.

In use: “When Dot’s young rescue Huskies escaped her yard, she put out a floof appeal with photos and descriptions to multiple social media sites, and was soon rewarded with the dogs’ return.”

August 8, 2023 2

Tiw’s Day’s Theme Music

Tiw’s Day is here at last, and the God couldn’t be happier about it. Breaking out in tears, the one-handed God thanked everyone with deep sincerity, not leaving anyone unmentioned, and then resumed his duties.

For those keeping score at home, this is August 8, 2023 in Ashlandia, where the train’s horn is loud and persistent against the quiet day. The sun’s influence and fronts have combined to breach 73 F right now, and they vow to keep going into the low nineties. Good to have goals, even for the sun and weather system.

(Meanwhile, the sun, upon reading this, asked himself in a bewildered murmur, “What’s he talking about? I don’t have goals. Do I have goals?” It gave him something to ponder while sipping his coffee.)

I have Van Halen performing “Best of Both Worlds” in the morning mental music stream (trademark TBD). Came upon that song as I noodled through my clothing needs for the day. Be walking in the morning, when it’s cooler. Than I’ll be in the coffee shop, where they like to pump up the A/C because it’s hot behind the counter, then walking again, and it’ll be in the eighties by then, before going to the movie theater, where it’s icy cold as deep space. We’re seeing Barbie today. I’m looking forward to watching Kate McKinnon as Weird Barbie. Always enjoyed her on “SNL”, especially when she was talking about her alien abduction experiences.

Anyway, I was thinking that I’d be wearing shorts, of course. It’s summer in Ashlandia. I wear shorts everywhere, unless it’s declared to be something semi-formal or above or the wife says something like, “You’re not wearing shorts.” “Of course I am,” I always reply before getting up to change. The shirt was the issue here. How heavy should the shirt be to meet my various needs? I’d be inside and out, and would thus need something to — ready? — cope with the best of both worlds. Yeah. That’s how The Neurons do it.

Be calm, stay positive, keep that strength up, and keep moving forward. It’s getting to be a long list, yeah, the things you must do to remain sane and healthy, hopeful, and optimistic, the things you must do to put in the work. I’ve have coffee but I’m having more, okay? Here’s the tune. Let’s go with it. Cheers

August 8, 2023 0

August 7, 2023 5

Monday’s Wandering Thoughts

He reads about how former POTUS D. Trump encourages a Republican crowd to cheer the US Women’s Soccer Team loss and their elimination. If they’re not willing to cheer for other Americans, who are they willing to cheer for?

Trump knocks ‘woke’ US women’s soccer team after World Cup departure

Trump Encourages GOP Crowd to Boo U.S. Women’s Soccer Team

GOP efforts to divide the country and tear it down seem to be accelerating.

August 7, 2023 2

Moo-day’s Theme Music

Mood: a bouncing flow of changing lights and colors.

He said, “It’s Monday.”

And all the cows sang, “Moo-day.”

Which left him speechless.

Yes, we’re on the Monday segment of the seven day perpetual merry-go-round. Never stops. Never pauses. Might slow or speed up. Actually, it might stop but we might all lose consciousness when that happens because having time stopped doesn’t fit with the mold of our existence.

Today is August 7, 2023. Politics are still on my mind. Can’t help it. I read political news and it swats me over the head again, again, again. I think, I want to know what others are thinking. I don’t understand their conclusions. But I try, and I fail. We are realities apart on some matters. Not going into more than that today.

Weather is same as it was yesterday — blue, 68 F, high of 86 F.

Had an uncomfortable night. Kicked in with a dream festival. It ended suddenly when the smoke detector started chirping about the need for a new battery at 3 AM. Said detector is located on a hiiiigh ceiling in the master BR. No ladder in my possession is tall enough. But I have a ladder that will reach a ledge (yes, the bedroom has a ledge on the high end), and then I can stand on the ledge and change it. Wasn’t doing that at 3 AM, though. Also, didn’t have any 9 volt batteries on hand. Used the last one in the multimeter for another project last week. So, off to the store I go today.

But first, it’s time to deliver for food and friends one more time. We’re due to leave for that in a few. My wife has returned from exercising and is sipping her fresh coffee. Love that smell. I’m two-thirds through my first cuppa.

Thinking about going to the store, I thought, I need to go today but maybe I’ll go again tomorrow. Just thoughts about what I needed to buy, wanted to buy, and the balancing of activities and priorities. From that blend of thinking, The Neurons introduced Stevie Nicks and “Edge of Seventeen” into the morning mental music stream (trademark locked down). Makes sense; there’s a line in the song which states, “I went today, maybe I will go again tomorrow.”

Stay pos and upright, motor on into the distance. Keep your eyes on the road and your hands upon the wheel. Let’s do this. Here’s the video. Cheers

August 7, 2023 3

A/C DIY Completed

I finished another DIY project — a repair — yesterday but I made several errors with this one. I’ll go into those. I want to also mention that I stayed overly zealous about throwing circuit breakers, ensuring everything was off, and cautiously touching wires. I won’t dwell on it, but I took constant steps to stay safe and unharmed. I was messing with 240 V a lot of times, and I stayed respectful of that.

Our air conditioning went out. Fortunately, the weather here hasn’t been too hot this year; we’ve yet to break 100 degrees F, and temperatures have been dropping into the upper 50s/low 60s at night. We also haven’t been inundated with wildfire smoke, so the air remains relatively clean, fresh, and healthy. It’s a mighty confluence of good fortune. We’re able to open doors and windows at night and in the morning to air the house out, dropping the inside temperatures to about 72 F. We just need to be aware of wildlife like skunks, raccoons, bears, deer, and cougars in the area, and make sure none of them wander in. Then we close almost all back up for the day, including the blinds, and keep the house cool. This works pretty well; it rarely pops over 82 F in the house, and that feels oddly comfortable. We do have a fan that we’ll kick on if we feel the need.

But one day, my wife said, “Turn on the air,” and I did, and it didn’t. The house blower went on but there was nothing from the condenser or fan. I immediately said, “Capacitor.” It’s gone out twice in the seventeen years we’ve owned the house, which was bought new. I ordered a new one, turned off the circuit breakers, pulled the A/C switch, removed the panel, and replaced the capacitor. All good, right?

No. I inspected the capacitor. Didn’t see any swelling or anything unusual. Wires were all connected. Hmmm.

Continuing on my mistake-strewn path, I powered the unit up and manually pressed the connector’s pull in. Power to the unit. Condenser and fan went on.

Well, damn. A bad connecter then? I ordered a new one and duly installed it. No change. Say what? I’d photographed the wires before swapping the part and poured over them now, ensuring I had them all right and secure. They were. Nuts.

Well, then, it must be the thermostat.

I’d replaced it last year. Maybe I’d done something wrong. I checked all of its wiring. Everything was correctly connected and tight. I replaced the batteries so they were new. No change.

I started searching the net for what the heck was wrong. This is something I should have done in the beginning. Pulling out the multimeter, I checked power at the unit — yep, 240 running into it, no surprise, as it fired before. No low voltage going into the connecter.

Whaaat?

The wires all looked good. Connections were solid, but nothing registered. Nothing. No damage visible. No nests, spiders, or insects. No traces of mice. Huh.

Back at the thermostat, I placed my probes against the red (power) and yellow (cooling) wires. 24 volts.

Then it must be on the furnace control board.

Nuts.

We have a side mounted furnace. It’s up in the attic above the garage. It’s a low, hot space. I dislike going up there and working on the furnace. It means pulling the car out, and using two ladders. One must be climbed to remove the access panel, but that ladder isn’t tall enough for me to safely climb and get up into the space. I must use a second, taller ladder, putting it into the access panel’s open space to climb up into the attic.

The furnace’s control board’s green light was lit but blinking. That’s how it usually is. I removed the access panel with the idea of checking all the wires. Yep, five into the thermostat connections, just as shown on the videos. Second was the fuse. Fuse was great. Next, I was going to check the low voltage power out of the stepdown transformer. As I was approaching that, I noticed a wire not connected to anything.

A yellow wire.

Now, you might think that’s obvious. In hindsight, it is. But there’s a large coil of installed but unused wires up there. That gave me uncertainty; maybe it wasn’t meant to be used.

I was thinking about all I learned but I still had just a nascent understanding of everything. Back down I went to videos. I really enjoy the Word of Advice series on Youtube. He’s patient and thorough.

I watched his video on the control board’s fuse because he was talking in general about the control board and all the wires and their purposes. And he said, “There should be five wires going in for the thermostat and two going out to the outside unit.”

Ding.

I had one going out. The blue one. No yellow one connected.

Power was cut and the connection was made. Success was achieved. The condenser and fan fired up and the house cooled.

Everything was reinstalled, closed up, and powered up. Success, but it was sloppy and haphazard. I should have been methodically testing and studying and not leaping to conclusions without testing. Lesson learned, I hope.