Working on my Day Off

Today was a day off due to holiday. Used this to catch up on yard work. There was a picket on our side fence that broke off. I had a spare picket. But it was plain wood. Needed to paint it white to match the fence. Before setting out to do that, I recalled I had a white board that I wanted to throw out. I cut it to match the fence size. Then I screwed it in. Time saved. Fence looks good as new.

Next up was planting grass by the concrete that was poured this past year on the patio/driveway. There were a lot of empty patches on the small hill down from the patio. Plus there was a long bare path around the bottom of the hill.

First task for grass planting was to pick up all the sticks. Got a couple metal trash cans full of them. Then I needed to pull out all the rocks in the dirt. That took a long time. I would use the hoe to loosen them. Then I picked up the rocks by hand. Some of them were large.

Finally I mixed the new topsoil with the grass seed. Unfortunately two bags of topsoil and one bag of seed was not enough to cover everything. Will have to borrow my brother's truck tomorrow to buy some more. Good timing too. Momoko's car is in the shop, and she is borrowing my car to drive to work.

Heating System Problems

I woke up a bit chilly this morning. Did not think too much about it because it is winter. However I am normally a warm guy. I hardly ever sleep with the thick blanket on top of me. As I descended the stairs of the house to the main level, I got the feeling something was wrong. It was even colder in the kitchen.

Went to the dining room and checked the temperature. It was an icy 52 degrees. The heat was set for 64 degrees. Oh no. I went downstairs and heard the furnace making some noise. The blower was not running. The furnace felt like it was in the startup phase. It stayed like that for a few minutes.

Might be time to call the service guy. But I needed warmth now. So I went back upstairs and shut the heat off. Then I turned it back on. Downstairs, I heard the furnace kick on. Then I heard a swoosh. That must have been the pilot lighting. Soon the blower ran, which was a good sign. I felt heat coming out of a vent.

Disaster averted, for now.

School Started Without Me

Last week I made sure I had eaten breakfast and a big lunch on the day college classes started for me. It is tough because I finish work and have to run to my class. This was the first semester I had an automatic transmission car in a long while. So the drive up to college was comfortable.

I found plenty of parking in the student overflow lot. Then I walked to the building my classes were in. Had plenty of time to spare. So I sat down in the first floor lounge to read my Kindle that I brought along. Ten minutes before class, I headed up stairs to my classroom.

As I got to my floor, I thought I saw a teacher open my classroom followed by a few students. It seemed strange because it was a woman opening the door, but I thought my teacher was a man. Also it was weird that there were not that many students there. I have a relatively good sized class.

When I got in, the teacher asked if we were here for a course on protecting the virtual office. What? Not me. I asked some other students if that was the class they were in. They were in that class. So I told the teacher I was here for a different class. She told me to log into the school system and double check the location.

I logged in and found out that I had the right classroom and time, but I came on the wrong day. My class was held two days earlier. Oops. I missed one class already. This is bad because my class only meets one time a week for four hours. I emailed my instructor to find out how I could catch up.

Next time I had better double check the time and place of the first class.