Our son (Brendan) texted Linda early this morning to see if we would like to have grand-daughter Madeline spend the night while Marilyn is here next week.  It turns out that next week Thursday and Friday are Jewish holidays, and Madeline attends a Jewish run day care facility.  Of course we said “yes.”

Linda worked at her desk on our personal finances in the morning, worked on her counted cross-stitch project for a while in the afternoon, went on a couple of long walks, and managed to get breakfast, lunch, and dinner on the table.  But as days go, it was fairly low key even for her.

I called Country Squire Fireplace and Lighting in Howell and asked for Bob as I had been instructed to do.  It was Bob’s day off but I got to talk to Mark.  Mark told me that they can get a 12′ hose with a 3/8″ flare fitting on one end and quick disconnect on the other end.  The QD includes the male fitting attached to the hose and the female fitting that gets threaded onto the supply pipe.  We already have a female QD fitting (Marshall Brass BC0102-0600) but it may not be compatible.  I had measured before I called and knew that we needed at least an 8′ hose, so 12′ will work just fine, especially since two feet of it has to go up through the base from the back and then out the top of the base and attach to the grill.  Mark asked me to call back tomorrow and talk to Bob to order it, so that is what I will do.

I double checked online that the range we had ordered was indeed a natural gas model.  It was, so there was no need to call the appliance store to confirm that.  I had a call back from Darryll at DCM Heating & Cooling.  He thought he would be able to come back on Friday or Saturday to hook up the gas from the meter to the house and the new black iron pipe and start up the two new furnaces.  All of the other gas conversion work we need done is dependent on Darryll getting his piece done first and I asked him if it would be possible to come on Wednesday.  He said he would check his schedule and see what he could do.  Darryll has been great to work with, and I try not to be demanding, but I cannot schedule other contractors until there is gas to the house.

I checked the label on our Weil-McLain “boiler” that provides heat for our hot-water baseboard heating system and domestic hot water.  It’s a GV-5, Series 1.  That allowed me to hone in on the right manuals on the W-M website from which I was able to identify the part number for the LP –> NG conversion kit.  It’s a 510-811-630 and consists of an orifice plate and an adhesive label that has to go on the unit.  The unit is a discontinued model, but service parts appear to still be available.  I found the conversion kit at the first online supplier I checked for under $31 (plus S&H) but delivery looked to be 2 – 3 weeks.  Ugh.  I placed a call to TOMTEK HVAC in Howell to see if Tom had checked on this yet.  He hadn’t so I gave him the model and serial number of our unit and mentioned that I had found the orifice plate online.

I worked at my desk for a while uploading blog posts from the last third of August, but it was such a beautiful day that I decided to work upstairs on my iPad2.  I called Bratcher Electric around 4 PM just to give them a “heads up” that we had a meter with natural gas.  Karen gave me Mike’s cell phone number and a time window during which I would likely be able to reach him.  He has been very busy doing estimates for storm damage repairs and has not been in the shop much the last month.  I got hold of him to let him know that we might be ready for them as early as next Monday, but anytime in the next couple of weeks after that would be OK.  Again, I try not to be unreasonably demanding, and I try to be truthful with folks.  Sometimes, however, that just results in us being put at the back of a long line of people who are unreasonably demanding.

Linda made maple baked lentils with sweet potato and apple for dinner.  It really hit the spot on a cool evening.  After dinner I continued working on selecting and editing photos for a gallery post on the natural gas pipeline work.  My cell phone cannot receive calls in the basement but it can receive txt messages and notifications.  Tom had called back from TOMTEK regarding the boiler conversion.  He can get the parts locally in about four days and wants $250 to do the conversion plus $59 for the service call.  A total bill of $310 to install a $30 part (retail) sounded excessive to me, so I may make a few inquiries first thing in the morning before I call him back.

We watched Season 5 Episode 5 of Doc Martin.  It was nice to see it on the TV rather than the iPad with a large screen, better sound, a DVD quality image, and no buffering.