Science fiction, fantasy, mystery and what-not
l’m home, surgery completed, ankle sown up, boot encompassing leg from knee to infinity. All progressed well with some bumps. Nada serious. Wife is the attending caregiver. Tucker (pronounced Tuck-ah) is assisting her.
Fed. On drugs. Doing great. Thank you for your support and concern.
cheers
I realized that I never issued a DIY update on my HVAC.
Background, the AC had ceased. I checked the usual issues and found nada. The A/C capacitator worked. 240 was reaching the unit. Nothing was coming from the thermostat.
After replacing the furnace’s stepdown transformer for the furnace and the furnace control panel and seeing no success, I tested the furnace cover’s safety switch. No power there. I tested the power into the junction box. No power.
The switch for the furnace is mounted on the wall not far from the furnace, right above the entrance into the space as you climb up the ladder from the garage. Not an easy access space. To check that box, I’d need to throw the circuit breaker for the furnace. That would kill any useful light in the attic space.
I mounted my trouble light up there on a rafter. Connecting it with an extension cord, I plugged it into a garage wall socket below. Light was restored. My largest concern was that my right ankle would roll on me while I was standing on the ladder. Although I wore a brace on it, it weighed on my mind. I imagined it rolling and toppling off the ladder. Such an imagination. I should write fiction.
Pulling the cover off the switch, I discovered the quick connects in it fried. Replacing the unit was short work after purchasing a new one.
Job done. Just in time for cold nights and morning. Really satisfying to hear that furnace start and run.
I previously wrote about a couple of coffee-shop regulars who disappeared. These were Austin and Ross. Now both are sort of back.
A reminder, Austin was a tall, fair man with red hair and hiking gear. When I first saw him in the coffee shop in late spring of this year, I assumed that he was off the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT). Several trailheads are right by Ashland, and we’re use to hikers coming into town for supplies, mail, or a break.
But he hung around through the summer and into autumn, stopping by the coffee house several times a day. And then, he just stopped, but I also didn’t see him elsewhere in town. I wondered and worried: where in the world was Austin.
Well, he just walked in one day recently like nothing had changed. Something has changed, though; I see him walking around town now, but he doesn’t come to the coffee house as he used to do. Good to see him and know he’s well, but questions remain about that disappearance and why his habits have shifted. Not any of my business, of course; I’m just nosy.
Likewise, Ross turned up in the coffee house yesterday. He’d been banned for comments he was making to the staff and for disturbing other patrons with his economic and religious ideas. No other details are available.
I saw him come in yesterday and head to a table. Then he went up and ordered. A few minutes later, the shift manager went over and reminded him that he’d banned. Ross went albeit not without shouting, “At least say it with a smile, you fascists.”
So, he’s still banned but at least I now know he’s still alive and in the area. Like Austin, though, there’s a mysterious gap over the last few months, which is always fodder for a fiction writer.
This is all in reference to a post from last week where my preferred coffee shop banned a fellow customer because he told several baristas some things about his website, apparently among other things which happened.
I spoke with the manager about it briefly this morning. While she was reluctant to discuss it — I totally get that — she shared that there had been multiple incidents with the banned man. She said, “While we always try to work it out with our customers and try to accommodate everyone, unfortunately reached a head where we felt that we had to other choice. We know how serious banning someone is, and discussed it at length before we made the decision. It was a team decision. That’s how we always do it, so that we can talk out the pros and cons, and the impact. It wasn’t unanimous, and some were upset about banning someone. But the overwhelming majority felt it was needed.” She left that open-ended about why it was needed. Still, gaining a little more insight into it is useful.
Michael Seidel, writer 