Category: Glimpses of Life

I am so thankful that we decided to take a last minute winter vacation as Minnesota weather was scheduled to be in the negatives the week we were to be gone.

We had a lot of options on where to go but decided we wanted someplace sunny, warm and where we didn’t have to plan a lot of things like renting a car and booking a hotel room.

The easiest option for us was a cruise and we decided to leave from New Orleans instead of Florida since I had never been to New Orleans before.

Norweigian Cruise Line (NCL) had a very good special for a 7 day inside cabin cruise so we jumped on the offer. Airfare was mostly paid by air miles that we used — a big plus in keeping our expenses down (especially for a last minute trip).

My husband found a park-n-fly hotel — The Holiday Inn in Eagan, Minnesota. I had never heard of a park-n-fly, have you? Basically you park the car at the hotel, spend the night, and the hotel shuttles you to and from the airport. It worked out very well for us and was cheaper than parking at a parking lot or taking a cab to/from the airport.

The room was nice and had all the usual toiletries. But — yes, there’s a but — we could not get the room temperature to cool down so it was very warm in the room. I guess that beats the alternative, eh?

(Nice pillows that were labeled soft and firm … )

But, who can sleep, anyway, when you have to get up very early to catch a plane?

The next morning, when I reached the lobby, I asked the desk clerk if they had a place where we could leave our bulky coats (heading from a cold weather state to a warm weather state takes innovation). She told us we could leave them in a front closet which I thought was a designated spot for coats but as I opened the closet door, I found it was a janitor’s closet. So that’s where we left three winter coats as we quickly boarded our shuttle.

I have to say, the male driver was quite chatty at 6 a.m. while our droopy eyelids tried to stay awake on the ride to the airport.

Everything went quite smoothly. Our first stop was in Chicago where we had breakfast before boarding the second plane to New Orleans.

“Warm weather here we come!” my brain thought gleefully.

Gulf of Mexico Sunsets

The Norwegian Star – The Ship

The Norwegian Star – Food

The Cabin Steward

The Modern Churrascaria Restaurant

Trip to Belize City, Belize

Trip to Roatan, Honduras

On a cold quiet night while tucked warmly in bed with just the hum of the furnace being heard, something was amiss in the house.

The hum stopped and did not restart. What could it be? Checking the thermostat, my husband could tell something was wrong. It was getting colder in the house and the furnace was not starting automatically.

Turning on the light, he headed downstairs to see what the problem was.

Drip, drip, drip. The top of the furnace had water on it. Looking above, the humidifier that we recently cleaned was leaking onto the furnace. Turning the furnace off, my husband cleaned the water up and headed back to the comfort of a warm bed.

When I awoke, my head was cold. I headed to the bathroom and said to no one in particular “It’s cold in here.” The words “the furnace stopped working” pierced the early morning air.

Sometimes it’s just too early to have problems, isn’t it?

Nevertheless, I waited til 8 a.m. and called the furnace company who had been out earlier this fall to clean the furnace. They gave me a 2 hour appointment time and arrived around noon.

The technician opened the furnace door and saw water. He checked and re-checked different areas of the furnace and there were several places that were moist.

“Well, I’m going to have to replace the control panel,” he said. “The problem is … ” Uh oh, my thoughts interrupted him. “The problem is that once I replace the control panel the problem still might not be resolved because there are other areas that are wet. If it were me, I would replace the whole furnace instead of spending a lot of money on a 20 year old furnace.”

“I have to also let you know …”  Oh dear, here it comes.  “… your humidifier is not going to work with a new furnace so you’ll have to replace that too if you get a new furnace.”

Oh, great. I called my husband who hates to replace anything that can be fixed and we agreed to replace both the furnace and the humidifier.

Here’s a picture of the old furnace. The humidifier is the black box at the top.

The Fraser Johnston furnace was replaced with a Coleman that has a 95.5 AFUE Variable Speed. In layman’s terms, it’s supposed to be really good.

The humidifier is a Honeywell and is fan powered. It’s a little different from the old one in that it has a filter that needs to be replaced once a year. They relocated it so it wasn’t over the furnace now.

Our new humidifier and furnace seem to work a lot better than the older ones as I don’t feel as cold in the house now that the humidifier is working properly.

For Christmas, my husband received a Nest wall thermostat. It’s really nice as you can set your thermostat from your phone when you’re away. You can also check online to see when the furnace kicks on and off.

Before we bought our house, a friend cautioned “you shouldn’t buy a 20 year old house as things start to fall apart starting at the 15 year mark.” I guess he was right.

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Do you remember riding in wagons when you were younger?

I never had a wagon — just a bicycle — but I do remember red wagons and even see them for sale in the stores. Something about a red wagon makes it seem nostalgic.

Recently, a friend sent me a video that shows how an “older” person continues to enjoy his red wagon.

Check out the link below.  It’s pretty creative if you ask me.

The Red Wagon

Is there anything from your “younger” days that make you feel nostalgic? Maybe one day you’ll invent something to help you keep it in your life.