bad day for mechanical things

The heat in my apartment is not working properly and my cell phone is missing.

Heat first. I've had the thermostat set at 68F since it became necessary to turn the heat on at all. (Yes, Virginia, you do have to heat your home in Southern California in wintertime.)

So this morning I woke up to the inside-the-apartment thermometer reading a balmy 80 degrees and the heat still running full blast. I turned the system off, then reset the thermostat for 68 before I left for work.

This evening the thermometer read 66 and the heat wasn't turning on. I put the system on On instead of Auto, and it's blowing something, but I'm not sure the air is warm.

So, then one would think, this is one of the advantages of apartment living -- you can just call the management office and they'll deal with it. Well, then we run into the missing phone.

Yesterday evening I made a couple of phone calls during my commute home. I stopped at the library long enough to pay a couple of overdue fines and renew the books, then headed home. This morning as I packed up to go to work, the phone was nowhere to be seen.

It has to be in one of three places: the car, the apartment or the library. I called the library from work, but nobody had turned a stray phone in. I've snooped around the apartment -- no dice.

I'll search the car tomorrow morning after I get back from the gym, when there's daylight to see by. But for now, let it be remembered: if it's important to you that a given higher machine or system work, don't let me near it.