There I was, all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, not unlike my peanut pals at Council Point Park, when I arrived there this morning.  I went to bed very early last night, so I bounced out of bed, ready to hit the ground runnin’ when that alarm went off.  Funny … when you’re a kid, you rebel about going to bed early (well, most kids gripe about it, but, as an only child, I grew up knowing that “children should be seen and not heard” so, while I might have pouted in my bed once I was tucked in for the night, I never complained to my parents.)

Right now, it’s all about maximizing my miles, so I’ve really been hoofin’ it since the week before Thanksgiving, gathering steps and miles as I move along toward my ultimate goal.  I crossed the 950-mile mark yesterday, so I am now speeding toward my goal in earnest before the snow flies.

Though I would have liked to languish on the loops a little longer, I quickly did four miles at the Park, doling out peanuts post haste, plus had my round trip there as well.  Unfortunately, I knew I had to be home for still another house issue.  This time it was the furnace which was needy, as it had been making loud knocking noises all week.  When the furnace kicked on, it sounded like a person was inside the ductwork, banging on the pipes frantically to come out.  I probably would have been in better spirits about it, had there not been so many other bothersome house issues this year, so I was very exasperated with this latest problem.

On top of it, the knocking began on Sunday, the same day I finished up the painting.  My initial thought was “oh no – I just painted and intended to let the floor dry for at least a week before putting any rugs down or even stepping on it.”

This past week, each time the furnace kicked on and the knocking noises began, I thought of that popular  70s tune “Knock Three Times” by Tony Orlando and Dawn.  When the knocking didn’t subside, I gave in and contacted Flame Furnace to schedule a service call.  This afternoon my tech arrived, the first female HVAC tech I’ve ever had, and, after I told her the problem, and the heat was cranked up higher, the knocking began.  The tech simply wiggled the PVC exhaust pipe and it stopped knocking.  I know I never touched that pipe accidentally and told her so.  She had a few suggestions, the most-logical of which was strong winds that may have moved the outside pipe which is connected to the main pipe that runs to the furnace.

It seems there is always something to deal with when you have a house.

As I sit here tonight writing this blog post, it is a time for reflection.  It is one year ago today my beloved bird Buddy died.  For those of you who are new followers of this blog, Buddy was a mop top canary; he had a stroke and I had to have him euthanized.  It broke my heart and I still miss his personality and cheery voice.  His picture is below as well as the link to the post I wrote about him after I lost him: https://lindaschaubblog.net/2016/12/04/forty-feathered-friends-at-the-footbridge/

My dear friend and neighbor, Marge Aubin, drove us to the vet on that fateful day, and afterward we went down to Wyandotte to the Detroit River’s edge to talk because I was so upset.  That was the last time Marge and I went on an outing, and, in this lookback, I am remembering Marge today, because tomorrow would have been her 80^th birthday.  Sadly, she passed away on August 14^th following a long battle with COPD.  When I leave for my daily walk, out of force of habit I still glance over to her deck, even though the variety of wild bird feeders and bright red hummer feeders are no longer there.  That deck was a perpetual safe haven for wild birds and we both enjoyed watching them at her many feeding stations through the years.

Life sure is tough sometimes.  Perhaps, in retrospect, the knocks in the duct work seem a little trivial for me to have expended so much angst over these past few days.  Supposedly, life’s school of hard knocks is guaranteed to build character and make us strong.  So, I guess I’ll use my mom’s old expression of “Buck up Buttercup” on myself and look ahead to 2018 with a chance to start anew.