Day 134, Year 11: Taking Care of Business
Date: Friday, March 4, 2016
Weather: Overcast with Snow Flurries, High in the 30’s, Low in the 20’s F
Location: At Home in Evergreen Preserve, Lowell, MA
Before I talk about taking care of business, I want to wish my brother-in-law Joe (sister Patsy’s husband) a very happy birthday. Joe is much more a brother than a brother-in-law and on special days like this, I very much miss being close enough to give a hug rather than being far away and having to communicate by phone. We called just as my niece Janet came to pick up her mom and dad and take them out to a Japanese steak house for dinner. Joe, hope you enjoyed your dinner and your special day.
We got up early and started the rush hour trek into Boston. At mid-day it takes us only 45 minutes to get from here to Mass General, but at rush hour you can double that time. But in an hour and half Mark was actually checking-in. By 11 am Mark had the biopsy and we were back in the condo. To get the tissue samples needed, they simply numb the specific area, stick and needle in, and then insert another needle into the first one to get the samples. The tissue samples will be sent to Novartis for the appropriate testing and in a week or two the results should be sent back to Mark’s oncologist. So today’s first order of business was completed before noon.
When we got back to the condo, it was time to deal with the heating issue. We took Jared, the neighbor next door to a local hardware store to buy a thermostat and to another hardware store to return the faulty one he bought yesterday. We came back to the condo and installed the new thermostat. This thermostat worked but it did not turn the heat on. The next step was to vacuum out the fresh air intake. Yesterday Jared thoroughly cleaned it, but when he got into it again today, he found that more dust had been sucked in. The fans were now absolutely clean but still we had no heat. Jared tried a few more things, but it became evident that there was some sort of electrical issue and we needed professional help. He called a heating guy that successfully worked on his system and he promised to come in an hour. And he (Bruce) did. The heating system here is a hot water system and evidently our water was so hot that it was keeping the heat from switching on. That probably means a faulty hot water thermostat, but we will have to wait until tomorrow or Monday to find out as the part had to be ordered. In the meantime, Bruce manually turned off the hot water heater which immediately switched the heat on. Hopefully we’ll have both hot water and heat by Monday.
Tomorrow we head to Cape Cod. We are going to a Tacky Gift Party tomorrow night at Bruce and Jane Woodin’s. This is an annual affair and always a lot of fun. Helaine Kanegsberg donated an item from her basement that I will take and I ordered Trump toilet paper for Mark to take. Regardless of your political leanings, this is definitely a tacky gift!
