December 4 -- An Inconvenience (Minor) Of Rural Living

But the day began well...After nearly a week of cloudless, non-spectacular pre-dawns and sunrises (well, still spectacular scenery-wise) there were promising clouds both east and west. So I refilled the bird feeders and chipped the the sheen of ice from the water features, all the time looking to the east to gauge the sky colors. And  the pre-dawn was actually impressive both northeast and southeast, with different looks --

To the northeast (looking in the direction of Granite Gap)

Southeast

I found a new setting for sunrises -- on the south side of my garage, which is where the about photo was taken. It was kinda off-limits during the summer and early fall as there was the possibility of encountering rattlesnakes there in the tall grass, but they're hibernating now -- or I've convinced myself that they are. And I still haven't seen one rattler, either on my property or off. Serendipitous once again -- or just plain lucky...And I like the lone tree at this angle; it gives a bit of perspective and interest. And the clouds to the west were giving the sky above Silver Peak a pinkish glow -- 

I really enjoy dealing, and going to,  our post office. How many city POs will call to let you know a big package has arrived -- or begin by saying your name? ("Steve, your big package has arrived and is taking up a lot of space on my table!") So I pop on over with a plate of brownies (Postmistress Joan has a sweet tooth, along with her husband Chuck). The main reason I'm going is because she'd called me to let me know my PO box (more like a slot, really) rental was up for the year and was I going to keep it, or get a street mailbox like I  was thinking of doing when I first moved in to Faranuf? I was going for another year with the PO "slot", because Joan and Chuck are a kick and our post office is a piece of rural life that is disappearing here; I want to enjoy, and be a part of it, while it lasts. I give her the brownies and we chat a bit. "How are those boxes of Irish Spring doing? Still keeping out the mice?" "Yep, no trace of them since I placed them under the door and in the corner! And Deb (her daughter) will be taking over for me; Chuck and I will be going to Las Vegas for a few days"  (what, to get away from THIS? this is where everyone goes to get away from THAT! But she's getting away from the post office). Though I mentioned it earlier, I really DO have a big package coming -- my new floor heater. But it's running behind schedule from Amazon, where the tracking has been stuck on "It's Arrived" for about 2 days now. But nothing today. I pass Chuck on the road as I'm leaving, and he gives me a hearty "Hello, Steve!" as he heads to the post office to pass the time by helping Joan sort the mail. I actually get a call from Joan about a half-hour later, saying I did have a package, and so did my friends whose house I'm watching while they're gone; I'm collecting their mail, too. So I go back to the PO, which is only about 2 miles at most from Faranuf. My package is from E-bay. A hubcap on Tundra Dos had popped off, and I'd pushed another one back into place though it was obviously broken. I was going to order a replacement for the missing one when I was visiting back in Los Angeles, but the fellow at the Toyota service station said Toyota OEM hubcaps cost over $100 each. OK, I live in a rural area where missing hubcaps are the norm, so no big deal. But I'd checked on E-bay and they were $17 each!!! And Toyota products, exactly was I was looking for. So I ordered two ("Buy It Now") and here they were. Purely cosmetic, but hey, I'm that way...

The major thing to accomplish was the servicing of my York heat pump. As I mentioned before, it's massive, at least 2 tons, and both heats and cools the house. There are floor vents in every room, sometimes more than one, and the pump is operated by a thermostat in the living room. As it's a very important piece of equipment for Faranuf, I like to get it serviced once a year, even though the "travel charge" is usually half of the service charge, since most of the maintenance guys have to travel 100-plus miles, and have more than one job a day. I'd made an appointment for "sometime in the morning" so I didn't want to go too far from Faranuf in case he came by. But he calls at around 9:30, saying the job prior to mine was going to take longer than anticipated, so could he be there at, say, 3pm?  OK, I guess...So I futz around, getting paperwork in order that I'd been putting off, dropping a DVD off to a friend -- we have to watch it as it has to do with "dealing with issues unique to working along the border" for when we volunteer at Cave Creek Canyon's Visitor Info Center -- and coming back to wait for the service guy's arrival. 3:30pm comes...4pm...4:30...nothing. He finally calls around 4:45, saying he just finished the job and will be here in about an hour. As he's on the other side of the Chiricahuas, I know how long the paved-road drive is to Portal, so I figure a bit longer than that. He finally gets here around 6. All this time I've been preparing a simple dinner to eat after he's left as i didn't want to eat while he was here, but I could have  had dinner before he got here, but I didn't know WHEN he would get here, so -- well, you know. But he's here now, and that's all that matters. I let him do this thing. A bit later he comes in and says to come with him and "look at this". Oh oh...I go out with him to the heat pump, where he points at something inside it. "See that? It's a circuit board to the blower. See that black stuff on it? It shouldn't be there". He thinks it's either mold, or the circuit board burned out; he can't tell which it was. So he takes a photo with his Smart Phone (thank goodness for technology once again) and says he'll show it around his work on Monday to see what they think it is, and replace the circuit board. And the good thing about it is, he says it's still under warranty...After payment, I give him $20 and tell him to go out and get a nice dinner as he's had such a long day -- and it's a long drive out here (and he didn't know where Faranuf was; when I was waiting for him I was outside bringing in the hummingbird feeders, and saw a van on the main road drive right on by, stop, then back up -- "That must be him!" ) And another good thing is -- the heat pump was serviced. And a problem was discovered, but it should be fixed soon. And during this time, I can still use the heap pump. But my floor heater should be arriving tomorrow (Saturday), as USPS tracking says it arrived in Tucson last night...

Sorry, but Life At Faranuf ain't all photos, tales of hiking and Eye Candy fall colors -- which are pretty much gone anyway...