...it's another. Or so I was ruefully thinking yesterday afternoon when at some point I realized my central AC had stopped working.

I changed the batteries in the thermostat. Flipped the switch on the breaker panel. Nothing.

Reluctantly, I called my HVAC guy and this morning when he called me back, he mentioned that the last time he was here, it was a matter of a small $2 fuse at a shut-off switch near the bottom of my basement stairs. I guess it's an emergency feature whereby I could shut off the furnace in case of fire, from a relative distance.

As soon as he mentioned the switch, I thought, oh my god, I've done this before. Paid a lot of money for a "service call" when all they had to do was replace the fuse. I had remembered years ago when this first happened to always keep a box of spare fuses handy.

I replaced the fuse and like magic, the AC compressor kicked on after a few minutes' delay. Now if I could just remember to check that darn fuse when either my furnace or AC isn't working! Can't tell you how often I've wasted money to have someone come to the house, only to find it's such an easy fix. It happens so infrequently, like every other year or so, that I totally forget to check it. Sigh.

I may mail that guy a Starbucks gift card as a way to say thank you.

As far as my knee rehabilitation, I finished up my 6 weeks of physical therapy last week. While I have improved, I'm nowhere's near 100% fine. If it wasn't for today's heat wave, I would try walking a greater distance on it, which I haven't done in months. Walking around the house is fine, but I feel it when walking, say, from car to supermarket. The knee is still quite stiff when I try to bend it (I think it's the swelling), but I can now fully extend it about 95% straight.

Since the physical therapy ended, I felt like I lost my security blanket. The therapist suggested I return to see the orthopedic surgeon as to possible other options, but I wasn't crazy about the surgeon and I know he's going to be biased toward surgery, which is what he initially suggested to me after a 5-minute exam of my leg.

The therapist also indicated it would not be unreasonable to continue my at-home exercises for the knee and give it another month or two. Which is what I'm doing. I also decided to double the daily exercises, so instead of doing just one daily session, which takes about 20 minutes, I'm doing the exercises in the morning and again at end of day. They aren't that strenuous but focus on building back strength in knee.

On top of that, I am still doing my "regular" strength training workouts 3x a week, which I began last spring to combat osteopenia, and after the gym I joined closed due to the virus.

So I often feel that all I'm doing is exercise, exercise, exercise! I'm just not getting any cardio now, though, so I'd really like to venture out onto my street again and see how walking goes. I know I need very well padded shoes. I may only be able to go a few hundred feet. I'm not sure. I talked a lot to my therapist about how much exercise is right...he said not too much that you set yourself back, but doing too little is also a very bad idea because muscles atrophy quickly. If anything, I tend to overdo it.

I'm trying to be patient as I've been told the knee has very little blood circulation and that's why it takes so long to heal; the red blood cells can't get in there. Also why the swelling in my knee is still there; the fluid builds up when injured but has no way to exit once there. Only slowly, over time.

Garden news: I've been regularly picking zucchini, and to a lesser extent, eggplant, cucumber, kale and stringbeans. I have about 4 small butternut squashes developing (!), but the squash plant has escaped the confines of the raised bed and sprawled all over the fenced raised bed area, making it really hard to get in there with a hose to water, especially the downward slope and my injured knee. Plus I damage the squash plant's leaves trying to thread the hose in and around it.

Yet I must water daily as this heat has been horrible. Now the vines have gone through the fence and are crawling around my lawn. I'm surprised the deer or something else hasn't discovered them yet and chewed them all up.

I did plant some asparagus bean (also known as yardlong bean) in a pot to grow up a tent frame I have on the back patio. It got going kind of late because it won't germinate until it's really pretty warm. But it loves all this heat and it has begun to really look healthy and take off. But still no signs of flowers, so I am really hoping I get to experience the 18" long beans. Same goes for the louffa sponge plant I'm growing. It's still climbing, but no flowers yet. Only maybe 6 more weeks of reliably hot weather left in the season.

Of course, I'm still waiting for the Big Kahuna: ripened tomatoes!!!! That's what I'm living for. I love blanching and freezing my surplus for winter use in soups and stews. I'm so afraid a blight or fungus is going to wipe them out before that happens, because my huge tomato plants all flopped over, in their cages, and are somewhat resting on the top of the 6 foot high perimeter fence. I can't even access the plants anymore to really thoroughly water them, and if I tried straightening them out I know I'd damage the branches.

I'm working very few hours these days, averaging probably 5 hrs a week the past 2 months. Work has become more of an afterthought than something to shape the rest of my schedule around.

My one remaining freelance client did send more work my way...from his wife, who works in the entertainment industry. I hope it becomes a more regular thing.

I continue to give and get things from my local Buy Nothing group. This morning I picked up someone's old bowling ball, which I thought I could spray paint in a metallic silver or gold and hopefully balance on an old birdbath pedestal I have (the basin broke years ago).

I also picked up a small plastic folding outdoor table and was offered a wood bunkbed ladder, which I thought I could repurpose as a trellis for pole beans next year, but I'd have to find a way to support it somehow.

I recently gave away a cross-body bag, many rolls of tape and several career books.