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I mentioned last week that our furnace was acting up. After crawling up there and restarting it, everything worked fine, so we thought the problem was a single occurrence. It turns out that we were wrong. Since that post, every time the furnace should have heated the house and didn't, we would flip the power switch off and back on, restarting the furnace. It would start up again, and we would hope it work. This led to several very chilly mornings.

So, I turned to the interwebs in search of information. It turns out a few other people have posted on home repair forums about the same model furnace, a Lennox G40UH(X) having problem heating. The combustion air inducer would turn on (the initial motor sound we could hear), and then the burners would light. They would burn for 4 seconds while the furnace checked for a flame, and when the check failed, the furnace would turn off the gas, reheat the ignitor, and try again. According to the maintenance manual, the furnace tries 5 times to light the burners, and if it fails, it enters a WatchGuard mode (the error code I saw blinking on the LEDs), and waits one hour to try again, preventing leaking gas or overheating.

The answer I found online said that the flame sensor sometimes needs to be cleaned, especially if there's buildup on the sensor. So today, I climbed into the attic with a piece of steel wool, found and removed the sensor, cleaned the buildup on it, and then put it all back together.

So far, the furnace has worked each time it should have - we'll have to see if we wake up to a house that's 60 degrees again tomorrow morning to see if my fix will be permanent.

For anyone who needs it (ie, Google searchers):

• Lennox G40UH(X) User's Information Manual [pdf]
  
• Lennox G40UH(X) Service Manual [pdf]
  

I'm on the phone waiting to cancel my XM Radio subscription (you can't manage your account online, you have to call in) and I hear the following:

Sorry, but we are currently experiencing heavy call volume due to the high demand for our new "Best of Sirius" radio package. Please stay on the line and a representative will be with you shortly. Be sure to tell your representative you would like to start receiving "Best of Sirius" today!

Yesterday my car broke. It sucked. Totally.

Admittedly, the problem was probably caused by me. Personally, though, I'd like to blame XM Radio. As you may or may not know, XM recently merged with Sirius Radio. Without warning to customers, they combined their programming in December. Like many others, my radio did not enjoy the transition, as it was an older XM Radio. After about a week, it finally adjusted to the new channel listings. My major complaint, though, was the fact that they changed the format of every channel I listened to. After a while if not being a huge fan of the new XM Sirius radio, I decided to cancel.

Since I had an inline FM modulator installed, I decided to see if I could use that for my iPhone/iPod - I can! The problem was that I couldn't find a way to turn the modulator on and off (it's a specialized XM-brand modulator, not your run of the mill one). I was playing with the wiring, and after giving up, my car wouldn't start! I assumed I somehow accidentally tripped some obscure security feature of my car. After trying and trying, my car just wouldn't start. Turn the key, and all I got was a click-click-click sound and flashing lights. No turning over, just clicking. Of course, I called to find out the dealer service center had just closed and would be closed Sunday too. I started trying to figure out how I would work having my car towed on Monday - I figured I'd have to call in to work, abandoning my trainee on her first day.

This morning, I thought I would give my car one more shot before calling my boss and explaining why I wouldn't be in. I turn the key, expecting a click, and instead got a brief crank before it went back to clicking. Tanis and I dragged the jumper cables out, and vroom! My car starts up!

Tanis and I took my car up to the new Firestone in Fort Collins (very nice, by the way). They checked the electrical system and everything was fine, but apparently the battery was corroded and swollen. They replaced it and we were good to go. What I figure is that I drained the battery enough while playing with the radio that it wasn't able to start the car afterwards, but had enough power to tell me in a non-obvious way the battery was low.

Thankfully, everything's back to normal now - so here's hoping the FSM gives me a problem-free week!

Posted from my iPhone.

But it's not what you think. First, an overview of the last few days:

After my nice, long hiatus, I am back! It's not that I went anywhere physically, just that life and Twitter dragged me away. For those of you who follow me on Twitter, good for you! I've found myself spending much more time detailing my day-by-day experiences there, rather than writing here. But, for some reason, I want to start blogging on here again as well.

The quick catch-up: Things are well. Monday I begin training our new employee (yeah, again - but this one has experience!). Hopefully it won't be too bad - I don't know how ready I am to train, but once our two trainees are out, we'll be full-staff once again, and I can go back to working four days a week, rather than five. I miss having my extra day off.

And for anyone who cares: I made this blog iPhone-friendlier!