Chronic pains…

Today, I won’t be talking about rheumatism-arthritis, or any chronic pain that penalizes many people including those that are my age, but problems linked to recurring chores that aren’t easy to perform at all. Cleaning up my furnace flame sensor is one of them. 

Why is this? Because my particular York furnace made by Johnson Controls was poorly designed, in total disregard for its future servicing needs. The most common problem with the gas furnaces used in America is flame sensors that cease to work because they’re badly needing to be cleaned. After years of problems and the inconveniences they bring, I’ve learned my lesson and do it yearly. 

My current furnace is 11 years old and has worked perfectly so far, but access to its flame sensor is near to impossible. Over the years, I had to develop special tools and procedures to get the job done, but this week, for some reasons, I couldn’t get it done. Call it back luck or just old age creeping in, but I wasn’t as lucky as usual in replacing that pesky sensor the first time around. 

I struggled a lot and even though my hands don’t tremble at all, I have big, fat fingers which don’t help inside tight corners. I tried to imagine other approaches, buy different tools and tweak my process, but nothing helped. In the end, I reapplied my original and time-tested method and bingo! It worked like a charm. 

This of course says a lot, not at all about aging, but much more about persistence, luck, not getting too uptight, knowing when to take break, and always doing these delicate tasks when we’re fully mentally relaxed and confident!