Snow, Car, and Furnace Problems, and Finished a Book - Busy. Busy, Busy

 This week has been a doozy. First, I got us cleaned up by Tuesday from last weekend's.

But then, the outside air conditioner/furnace unit froze up so the fan would not rotate, causing the motor to get to the "burning out" phase. So I had to trudge through the icy crunchy snow-covered grass to break up the ice around the fans.

Yesterday, the Saturn wouldn't start. I figured it was the battery. It was. Fortunately, it was still in warranty. AAA came out and started it. They ran a test on it and said it was a dead battery. So I drove it around the corner to the shop I had bought the battery from. They replaced it for no charge. Took about 30 minutes. The only negative thing was none of the staff was wearing masks.

Overnight, the snow and sleet returned. There's a break,now but it's due to resume anytime.

Tomorrow I'll have to clean the car off and then the driveway.

But on a positive note, I finally finished "The Woman in White" by Wilkie Collins. It is 626 pages. I began it in May of last year. Written in 1886, it was one of the first of the mystery-thriller genre. Collins wrote another in the same genre in 1860. It was called "The Moonstone". I actually liked it better. Now to choose another big book. My latest Charles Todd/Inspector Rutledge is coming; it was released on Tuesday.

This Week

This week has been productive.

- I read another book of time travel; specifically, how to build a time machine. Written earlier than the first one I read, this said traveling to the past was possible, but had some limitations. I'll discusss all of this in a later post as I said before.

 

- Read a book about oranges. It was written in 1965 by John McPhee. Actually, it's a re-read.I first read it in 1993. Everything you wanted to know about oranges.

- Read a terrific novel about a Russian count who sentenced to confinement to a very plush Moscow hotel for the reast of his life beginning in 1920. The book ends in 1958. A major surprise in the last sentence - and no, it was not all a dream!  one of the very best I've read in years.

- Discussrf with my doctor to increase my daily insulin shot. Still once a day, just going up 5 units to 30 from 25.

- Still watching re-runs of MASH. Saw the two where Radar left the show. He was going back to take care of his mom and the farm in Iowa becasue his Uncle Bill died. The real reason he left the show was because of burn-out and wanting to spend more time with his family.

- Actually went out twice this week: had to follow my wife as she dropped off our cars for inspection and oil change. Strange feeling being out. I pretty much styed in the car. 

- Watched two DVD movies this week. One was about finding rhe famed City of Gold. It was National Treasure 2: The Book of Secrets. The other was also a sequal: Night at the Museum 2. This one had Amy Adams as Amelia Earhart.