The AC guy came over yesterday to see why my central air hadn't been kicking on the last few days. It was a blown fuse. I'm embarrassed. He charged me $138 for a service call. My one-year warranty on their new install does not apply, he said, because the problem had nothing to do with their installation. I should have known to check the fuses but umm, the last time this happened was over 5 years and it didn't occur to me.

I guess he was right but I was still unhappy. I've decided that I won't have them come do the annual service next spring to make up for this visit. There are some people, I know, who don't routinely have their furnace or their AC services each year like I usually do. My mother, for instance, never had that done to my knowledge in 15 years, until one day it stopped working and then the bill was pretty big, over $1,000.

But I've got to clamp down on expenses. I have not been paying attention. As mentioned earlier, I just bought yesterday a 6 ft high aluminum step ladder on FB. They wanted $30, I paid $25. I have an immediate use for it as I want to scrape and repaint the front part of the little roof supported by the 2 pillars at my front entry. It's one of the few spots left on the house not covered by vinyl.

Yesterday was mostly a stay indoors kind of day until I saw dad for dinner. We decided to eat outside at the restaurant, which was a nice change and it was much easier to have a conversation.

You often assume that with age comes wisdom. That's not always the case. During our dinner, the subject of the eclipse came up and I reminded dad, don't look at the sun Monday. From there I discovered that while he agrees that "staring" at the sun will damage your eyes, he said that just looking at it quick "is okay." Which really rattled my cage. I mean, his eyes are already severely compromised by macular degeneration. Why would you risk further serious and permanent damage just to take a peek? I told him that was ridiculous and that's when he told me to stop talking. A nice way of saying shut up.

I've noticed in recent years something about my dad I never knew before.That he likes to take a contrarian view to a lot of things and question conventional wisdom. Regardless of whether it makes sense or not. Like, he doesn't dispute that global warming is happening but he questions whether it's caused by Man. He likes Trump. He's questioning his primary care doc's decision to send him to see a dermatologist about a bad rash (almost hive-like) he's had for weeks now. Dad doesn't feel that's the right kind of doctor so he hasn't gone to see him. Trying to reason with dad is usually pointless. He feels he knows better despite his lack of training.

At other times, he makes what seem to me snap judgments about things with no interest in learning more about the subject. Last night I was telling him how much I was enjoying the FB plant groups and I told him that people spend a lot of time there posting pictures of their plants and then other people admire them and ask questions about them. I went on to say that some people have hundreds of plants in their homes, that it's almost like hoarding.

From there he said he's noticed there are a lot of people who seem to have an obsession about things and launched into talking about something else I can't quite remember but I think it had to do with Barcelona. Not really sure there was a real comparison there, houseplants vs. protestors in the streets. I think he was talking about how people feel compelled to protest in the streets. Two totally different things.