Cracked Heat Exchanger

I am the proud owner of a new gas pack (furnace/ac unit) for downstairs.  Last weekend, during the snow of the decade, the heat went off - then later came back on.  It did that twice more. 

The heating people came out Wednesday morning - we were thinking that the gas regulator had debris or maybe water in the gas line that had frozen - causing the furnance to trip.  It wasn't until the technician took the cover off of the unit that he found the REAL problem - it's never good when an HVAC technician says "uh oh"!! 

Replacing the exchanger was possible - but would cost almost as much as an entire new unit and the rest of the unit would have probably needed replacing within a year or two - so the decision was made - REPLACEMENT!  Of course the unit had to be off until replaced - carbon monoxide ya know!

They arrived at 9 and were finished by 12 - ripped out the old one and got the new one in, complete with a fancy programmable thermostat - how 21st century of us!

I'm just glad that the heat is back on - by using the fireplace and a portable heater we were able to keep the heat about 62 but that's a BIT lower than normal! 

HOT

It's swealtering out there today (and yesterday for that matter).  It's beyond swealtering - is *blinking* HOT.  Temps in the 90s with heat indexes in the 100s - YES, I know it's August, YES I know that it's Southeastern Virginia - but ENOUGH!

Tomorrow is supposed to be better - mid 80s - now that's something when the mid 80s is considered cool!! Oh yes - mid 80s accompanied by thunderstorms!! Of Course!!

Hurry up autumn!!

UNCLE . . .

I've had enough already! It's not even the middle of June and already we've had several days in a row of 90+ weather (in some cases 100 degree weather). It's not August - not even the end of July!!

On top of that gas is costing almost $4 a gallon here - we're a bit lower than some other places and I just cringe at the thought of the electric bill next month! I don't think the A/C or the fans have stopped running (fans help keep the a/c a little higher - probably a vain attempt to save some money!!). We did cook outside so that was something but you certainly couldn't stay outside long - at least I couldn't.

Oh well - fingers crossed for no power failures and we're not going to mention hurricanes!!

It's Summer

Once again, Virginia Beach is going from Spring to Summer to early Spring! The weather over the Memorial Day weekend was absolutely beautiful - perfect temperature and sunny. Today it's hot and somewhat humid - summer weather - high 80s and sunny. Tomorrow is supposed to be 65 - after some thunderstorms roll through - back to early spring!

We're finally seeing many of our foreign student workers come to the library. In previous years, we've seen them come earlier - as much as a month earlier - but they're coming in now. It really is inspiring - I don't know that I would have ever had the courage to travel across the globe to a foreign country where I didn't speak the language well to work for 3-4 months. I'm just glad we can provide some contact for them to their friends and family back home. If only we had wireless!!

As the other area libraries calm down (somewhat) with school closing in a few weeks, we gear up for a really busy summer. I wonder how the gas problems and prices will affect the number of people who come to visit Virginia Beach and how many visitors we have coming in to use the computers. Only time will tell!

PS - HAPPY BIRTHDAY to a good friend - I didn't forget - I'm just that way!