We had a long summer that was full of constant rain showers and thunderstorms.
Although my condo building is higher elevation, some of the streets and ditches in my neighborhood are prone to flooding.
Flash floods are particularly worrying for folks who live along the river bed, because with enough sudden rain water the river can engorge and flow over into their homes in a matter of minutes. People die in these kinds of flash floods every single year. Fortunately, our area hasn’t seen any fatalities from extreme weather this year, but things could change once the temperatures outside drop into the single digits. Now that it’s officially autumn, I need to prepare myself for this inevitability. That’s because it’s now the time of the year when I get my furnace running again and serviced by my local heating and cooling company. I called and made an appointment to be seen by one of their technicians. When the HVAC tech arrives, he or she inspects my furnace and runs a few tests to make sure there are no gas leaks or other issues that need to be addressed. One year I had to replace a cracked heat exchanger, but I was hoping there weren’t any problems this time around. I have gone out of my way to protect my furnace from malfunctions or damage so it wasn’t a huge surprise when my system passed all of the inspections. I got a refill on heating fuel and now I’m ready for the cold winter season. Now I just need to start doing lots of laundry so I have blankets and warm clothing clean and ready for whatever life brings this year.