This is a long weekend, and we have plenty of activities to fill it up. Friday, we had a neighborhood party. Today, we had a breakfast just for our condo at Bob Evans. Tomorrow, we’re going to a concert at Johns Hopkins to hear the Philadelphia Brass Quintet. And Monday we have a circle lunch. Woo-Hoo!

I have recovered from my blue light treatment. But my earlier recovery process and lousy weather have kept me inside this week. So I did a home automation project. When my old sump pump alarm went on the fritz, I replaced it with a Smart Home hub made by Samsung. Well the hub can do more than just one alarm. Now, when we go away for a long time, I can click one button on my tablet. That will disable the garage doors and make the overhead lights turn on and off at defined times. That’s pretty cool if you ask me. I also wanted to add a water sensor to detect a leak in the clothes washer. Unfortunately, the sensor was defective so I’m waiting for a replacement.

Our ceiling fans have lights. These are unusual lights that one doesn’t always find at the hardware store. I went to Amazon ordered LED replacement lights that are a little brighter. Unfortunately, the package was lost and I had to re-order them. They should be in by Monday. That will be very good indeed because BG&E has offered to do a free energy audit. As part of the audit, they will install LED lights for me in any fixture I request. We have one fan and one ceiling fixture that are on a 20-foot high ceiling. They won’t have the speciality bulbs, but I will. So we’ll get new bulbs in those 20-foot high fixtures. There’s no way I would consider using a ladder that high, and it would cost at least $100 just to have an electrician visit the house. This is a very good deal for us.

Here’s a picture of an icicle we had hanging from the furnace exhaust pipe. It was nearly 8 feet long. We had some warm and rainy days and it’s all gone now. It reminded me of living in Omaha when I was about 10 or so. I remember houses would have snow blow almost as high as the roof. Other houses would have an icicle wall off one side of their porch. We didn’t have anything like that. But the icicle was pretty impressive for a while.

That’s all for now. I hope this finds everybody doing well.