This week’s big accomplishment was putting up the new issue of Computor Companion.
We have a couple of new writers who came up with some great articles. The issue has articles on PowerPoint, Word, Excel, spyware, free Web stuff, e-mail filtering, and a lot more.
In far less nerdy news, it’s done nothing but rain all week. The gray is etched into my psyche. In the midst of all this gray, we also had a huge pellet stove freak out.
As some people may know, a pellet stove burns small wood pellets. The stove requires electricity to run because it has three fans and an electric ignition. We also have a wood stove that we use as a back up, so we don’t freeze when we lose power.
In any case, the pellet stove normally just does its thing reasonably quietly in the background. We feed it pellets; it heats the house. Unfortunately over the last few weeks, the pellet stove has periodically gone on a screaming jag. There is something very wrong with one of the fans. The fan scrapes against the side of the fan housing and makes a screaming noise that makes you want to kill it.
In any case, James has been able to readjust the errant fan and make it stop screaming. That was fine because the first couple times it screamed, James was here. Unfortunately, on Wednesday, it screamed again while James was gone and I have no idea how he readjusts it to make it stop.
When the screaming began, the dogs and I leapt up and ran out into the hall. We then all stared at the pellet stove and wondered what to do. Cami whimpered and whined. I kicked the stove. Neither response was helpful.
Next I pulled the plug, and blissful silence was restored. But it did mean I had to start the woodstove, lest we freeze. But it was a small price to pay to avoid the screaming. Later that night, James tore apart the fan and it’s been running okay since then.
But in even better news, James just called to let me know he picked up a new fan today 😉