a puttering day

Is spring here yet? Is it, is it, is it? Nope. But Maggie is ever hopeful.

The heat exchanger's control panel had a new little light glowing this morning: time to change the air filters. OK. On the day the guy installed it, he gave me a hurried tutorial in the procedure. I'm glad I asked questions, because he didn't volunteer that all you have to do is take 'em out and hose them down in the bathtub. The way he had initially described it, I thought you had to go buy new filters every three or four months. Nope, not true. So, here are the grimy, icky, gross filters:

See how the one at left is all gray? It's supposed to be dark blue, like the one on the right. I'm pretty sure that the one on the left is dirty indoor air. That's probably crap from the woodstove in there. Can you imagine breathing that stuff in all day? I'm so glad we included the heat exchanger in this project, otherwise we wouldn't be getting much fresh air in the house all winter.

As for the filter on the right, that's the intake, I believe. Let's have a closer look:

See the little cluster of dead bugs in the lower left corner? Yum! So, I rinsed the filters in the bathtub. The OLD bathtub. The new bathtub is still a spoiled brat, and won't have to deal with these. And the installer left a few extra filters, so I'm using those and letting these dry out.

This project led to the eternal question, "how do I get that little light on the control panel to go out?" I went fishing around for the manual in the drawer we toss all such manuals in. I found the manual, but no instructions. Eventually, I realized that the panel itself has instructions on it for resetting the filter change light. But, having now confronted the fresh hell that is a disorganized drawer of manuals for everything from the coffee maker to the iPod docking station to the gas range, I took on another project today... organizing the drawer.

Oh lord, what have I gotten myself into?

There, all done. (Mom, I'm using those cool plastic inserts from Switzerland. I got 'em from Dad. SCORE!)

I also figured out where to take the fire extinguisher to recharge it. And cleaned out the bottom of the woodbox of three dustpans' worth of scraps, bark, and dirt. And hauled the clothesrack up from the basement to the bat cave and hung a load of laundry to dry on it, because guess what? Our electricity bill was double what it was last month. It's the treadmill! And, speaking of the treadmill, I knocked out a short, fast run. And lifted weights.

So that's been my day so far. You know what? I'm having a blast. I hope you are, too.