Yukiya Arashiro nearly pulled off a stage win today for his Bbox Bouygues Telecom squad. He started the day’s break — a break that, astoundingly, made it all the way to the line, thanks in large part to his hard work in the final kilometers — and what thanks did he get? The poor sod saw Quick Step’s Jérôme Pineau and Cofidis’ Julien Fouchard zip past him at the line. How does one say “Ce me fait chier!” in Japanese?
While we’re discussing things that suck, it snowed here briefly this morning. Naturally, the furnace went on the blink in solidarity. We’re starting to suspect our Honeywell programmable thermostat, which is about more one cold spring morning away from getting the old Han Solo treatment from me and my S&W .357 Magnum. Probably take out one of the neighbors in the process. The old hand cannon packs quite a wallop.
The chill must have been good for the roses I bought Herself yesterday, though. Just like sitting in the cooler at Platte Floral, except for the big white cat with the foliage fetish who keeps rubbing up against them.
Mad Blog Media 
Nice flowers O’Grady, what else nice did you do for the long-suffering missus for putting up with you for 20 years? We exchanged gifts (I got a new bike frame, she a suit of clothes that cost about half the amount) and enjoyed a sumptuous dinner at a special place here in Viterbo, Italy. Today’s Giro stage was pretty exciting, Pineau owes the Japanese fellow a favor, if he hadn’t keep pulling I’m betting Jerome would have sat up and rolled in 148th rather than pull his companions in and risk getting 3rd. The stage was a great video spot for our Paradise in Piedmont tour as we visit both Novi Ligure (but we avoid those ugly roads past the big factories) and Castellania and ride through the narrow streets of Gavi just as they did. We hang a left and make a steep climb to a very nice hotel on the Villa Sparina wine estate rather than loop back to Novi — I think the stage was modified from what was published due to a road washout…we’ll find out for sure in a couple weeks when we’re there ourselves. We have a couple places available if anyone wants to join us. Take that FTC!
Patrick: Funny you should mention your Honeywell thermostat. I just had one installed on Tuesday. As you can imagine in the PetroMetro, air conditioning is primary. It’s in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, Houston edition. Really, it is.
The three-year-old builder’s grade piece of crap thermostat stopped talking to the air conditioner some time in the night while the AC was running. Hence, the AC ran all night. When we woke up late from our deep cryogenic slumber, the temperature in the house had plunged to 64 degrees. I had to climb in the attic and turn off the power to the AC until the repair guy came.
The AC guy suggested I run up to Home Depot, get a Honeywell, and he’d install it. The brand he told me to avoid was Luxaire.
So far, so good, but it’s only been two days. I haven’t programmed it yet. Just gave it a temp and sent it on its way.
I did read on the Honeywell box that the programmable thermostat I bought would not work with a multistage heating or cooling system. If your heater is 2-stage (gas for regular operation and electric for that extra umph), you might be on to something about why your heater isn’t kicking on.
Back to the Giro (though some of you may be more interested in the thermostats – for that I’m sorry) Patrick, is there any way you can hook up with the pre-race show on RAI 3? “Si Gira” could be the best part of the TV coverage other than the racing itself! It’s shot at the start village each day before the race — perhaps Hoody gets in there? They have a feature called “Qualita in Giro” where they hype the food products of each region. I don’t know how to describe exactly how concerned about food quality most Italians are….obsessed might be the right word. They have a chef on each time, cooking up dishes using the region’s best ingredients – today was a prosciutto and melone pasta. Sounds odd but it looked very tasty on TV. Part of the deal at the village is to feed folks (how can Italians NOT feel people? It’s in the genes I think) and what they were dishing up today looked mighty good. I hope Hoody’s getting a forkfull each day before the start. The other part of the show is a BS session with some TV talking heads – today they rounded up Matteo Tosatto, who’s 36 today, presented him with a cake and popped the cork on some bubbly for a toast. Now we wait for 3 hours until the live race coverage comes on — time for me to get ready to see tomorrow’s stage to Montalcino live, in-person. (Here may be Hoody’s chance to kill me, he could run me over on the course with the VN car and blame it on texting!) The plan is to take the rental car up to Montalcino, get the bike out and head off on paved roads to interesect the strade bianche (dirt) section, stopping at a good viewing spot to see the race pass by. Then back on the road following the route to Montalcino, buy a bottle of Brunello, then head back home. Sadly, with the weather forecast for tomorrow I’ll probably instead be just standing beside the car along the muddy route under an umbrella…but I can watch the video later, sometimes ya just gotta be there!
Jeff, our Honeywell is a programmable dual-purpose jobber that is intended to run both the gas furnace and an auxiliary source, like a heat pump. As I understand it (not very well), the aux kicks in if the ’stat decides that the gas isn’t rockin’ enough heat.
Thing is, we don’t have a heat pump (though we do have a rooftop solar panel that’s operated by an old-style lever-operated thermostat). I think maybe the guy who installed this just grabbed whatever off the shelf and called it good.
Since the problem is intermittent, I’m wondering whether the problem actually lies with the furnace itself. We had the flame sensor cleaned a couple weeks back, but who knows? Maybe there’s some other doohickey in there in need of a tuneup.
Larry, Hoody was just singing the praises of Montalcino and Brunello during today’s live update. I’m gonna have to see whether my local grog shop has any on hand. I usually drink Italian during the Giro, French during the Tour and Spanish during the Vuelta, but lately we’ve been stuck on a Portuguese red (Vale do Bomfim Douro Valley 2007), a French rosé (Mas de la Dame Rosé les Baux de Provence 2009) and a Spanish white (EL Perro Verde Verdejo Rueda 2008).
Brunello is wonderful but overpriced in the US. But try some other Tuscans. Morellino di Scansano is good and of course there are some wonderful Sangiovese/Cabernet blends out there. Rosso di Montalcino can be good too, the story is some years they don’t do any Brunello so the almost-as-good-but-not-quite good enough for Brunello grapes get used for Rosso. Sagrantino di Montefalco, from nearby Umbria can equal some Brunello’s in everthing but snob appeal and price. Get some nice Barbera and catch up with the Piedmont stages from the last few days before you get too crazy with Tuscany and Sangiovese. Watch for the fat (probably wet) guy along the dirt sections of tomorrow’s Giro stage if the weathers at all decent.. if it’s really wet, I’ll be among the soggy crowd under umbrellas at the finish in Montalcino instead. Enjoy the extra work with both Giro and ToC, which I assume(?)at least means some extra greenbacks!
Patrick,
Get a reliable guy to come and check out your heating system. Assuming you’ve been having it maintained, and it isn’t something stupid like a clogged filter, then you probably have one of two things wrong.
Thing number one is the thermostat. Stats tend to fail immediately (within a few weeks after installation) or they go for eons, till the guy replacing your furnace talks you into a new stat “just because”. They occasionally will fail sometime between “immediately” and “never”, so have it checked out, but don’t assume it is the cause.
Thing number two is the gizmo in your furnace that collects information from the sensors in the furnace, relays it to the stat, and relays commands back to the furnace from the stat. Not all furnaces have this, but if yours does, and it is bad, the symptom is completely random action, crazy-hard to diagnose. This is kind of expensive, but still a lot cheaper than a new furnace.
You’ve already done the smart thing and put in a programmable stat. The EPA isn’t just blowing smoke when they say a programmable stat can cut up to 30% off your heating bill.
You might want to deal with this yourself, rather than kick up a level to Herself. HVAC guys tend to look on women as “the little woman”, and not listen to them. My wife says she’s going to go buy a penis to wear anytime she has to deal with a contractor.
Now about that Evans guy, I have no clue about his actual chances, and his team seems kinda weak to me, but I’ve got a soft spot for him and I hope he wins.