Well, we’re a week into 2022 already and I can hardly bring myself to write the year as 2022. The last two years have been a little tough on everyone with the covid restrictions. I’m hoping for a better 2022, but we’re off to a rough start.

Last weekend – New Year’s Day – had the coldest nights of the season. Saturday and Sunday nights were clear with lows in the 30s. Wouldn’t you know it, our heating unit went out on Saturday afternoon. We made do for the weekend with space heaters, but it was far from ideal.

Our central heat is integrated with the air conditioner unit. It’s not a heat pump, it has what’s called an electric heat strip. The hot air is forced through the same fan and ducting that the cooling unit uses. Donna had a referral to an HVAC guy, but it turned out he had retired. He referred us to another guy that was able to come out before noon on Monday.

He quickly found the problem. I was guessing the blower motor had fried as I smelled an electrical burnt odor much like what I would expect if the motor winding had shorted. Luckily it wasn’t that – it was a corroded connector that created excessive resistance and burned the feed wire to the blower motor. That was an easy fix, but the bad news was, it didn’t solve the problem.

When the wiring burned it also took out the double pole 50-amp breaker in the pedestal. The good news was, he had a replacement part on hand and fixed the power pedestal. More bad news was his bill – he charged a total of $450 for the repair, which I felt was excessive, but I didn’t complain, I just paid him.

He also gave us a quote for a replacement air conditioner with a heat strip – a Day and Night 3 ton unit for $5,500 installed. I told him I would have to think about it. Our current air conditioner unit is over 30 years old and it’s not a matter of if it goes out, it’s when. Looking inside the unit, I believe that will be sooner rather than later.

I set appointments for two more replacement estimates. In the meantime, I did some research to help me understand my options. The first estimator came yesterday from a Phoenix outfit called Liberty Heating and Cooling. He looked everything over and recommended a 2.5 ton unit with an 8kW heat strip. This was more in line with what I thought we needed. He included a prefabricated concrete pad – our current unit has a 6kW heat strip and is mounted directly on the ground. His quote came to a total of $3,900 – much better than $5,500.

I’m a little concerned about the quality of the unit they use though. The brand they install is called Broan. These are made by Nortek, the parent company of several brand names. Most of the reviews I’ve read aren’t positive, but it’s a small sample size.

We’ll have another local company, Gleeson Mechanical, come out on Tuesday to give us a quote. They use several brands and all are top notch. I’m curious to see how the price stacks up – I expect it to be somewhat higher than the Broan unit, but it may be worth a little extra for higher quality and reliability.

I had another issue that doesn’t make for a good start to 2022. On Wednesday, I had an appointment with a dermatologist. I had a couple of skin issues I wanted to get an opinion on. I ended up getting a full body scan. I had some pre-cancerous lesions on my face which he froze. But the bigger deal was a spot on my back that appeared to be basal cell carcinoma. He took a biopsy and yesterday, the pathologist confirmed it’s cancerous. I’m not overly concerned about it. Basal cell carcinoma usually isn’t very aggressive – it’s a slow growing tumor and can usually be found and treated before it spreads.

Unlike my previous bout with cancer (I wrote about it in a series of posts here), this was detected early. The lesion is only about the size of my pinky fingernail. I have an appointment in a couple of weeks to have it removed. Dr. Kessler will cut or scrape a small divot in my back and cauterize it. Hopefully that’s the end of the story. Basal cell carcinoma does have a high rate of recurrence, but it moves so slowly that it can be detected.

As always, Donna has been feeding me well. Our New Year’s Eve meal was special. We had an outstanding lobster mac and cheese on a half shell from Hancock Lobster in Maine. And that was just the starter! We also enjoyed some lightly fried squid and veggies with tzatziki. A great way to end 2021.

On New Year’s Day Donna fixed a pasta dish called Quick Ragu with Ricotta and Lemon. It was on the spicy side – she’ll adjust the recipe.

On Mondays during the football season, Donna knows I’ll be watching the Monday Night Football game, so she keeps it simple. Fish street tacos are a quick and easy dish and I can easily eat them while watching the game. We love fish tacos and Donna makes a great sauce for them.

Another tasty dish was a beef ragu over spaghetti squash.

The weather here took a turn for the better over the last few days. The week leading up to the end of 2021 was relatively cold and wet. I mentioned the cold, clear nights last weekend but by mid-week we had highs in the upper 60s and hit 72 degrees yesterday. Overnight lows were in the 40s. The forecast calls for more pleasant weather and relatively warm nights of 50+ degree lows until the middle of next week when we might see some rain showers.

*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!