Imbolc Valentine Moon
“Bob. Gas man Bob.” The sales rep from Centerpoint energy introduced himself, pronounced himself of German ancestry and therefore very excited about strong coffee, minor league baseball and variable speed fan motors.
The second estimate is on the table. Literally. At the end of our kitchen table. Reliance and Center Point. Nice folders. Roughly similar costs. A few bells here, whistles there.
Tomorrow Brad from Air Mechanical comes out. He’ll be the last. We’ll make a decision and should have a new furnace by mid-week next week. At least 95%, maybe 96.5% efficiency if we decide we want the quieter variable speed fan motor.
Owning a home means these kind of transactions go on all year. The handyman fixes the door. The snowplower clears the driveway and the sidewalk. Ray cuts the grass. Mickman’s opens up our irrigation system and closes it down in the fall. We have a crew that washes our windows outside twice a year, cleaning the gutters at the same time. It’s all part of a balance among the things we can do and want to do and what we’re willing to pay others to do.
We do our own pruning, tree removal, garden amending, planting, bee keeping. I maintain the electric fence and installed it. We harvest our flowers, vegetables, fruit and honey. We’re lucky that we can sort tasks out along these lines. It makes life so much easier.