Well, time to set the clocks ahead tonight.  Go ahead and change the batteries in the smokes and CO detectors as well.  If you have a gas burning furnace and do not have carbon monoxide (CO) detectors, get some and put them in the bedrooms.  They may just save your lives if something goes wrong with the furnace that does not cause a fire.  All the big box stores have them.

Now that the weather is tolerable, it is also a good time to take advantage of these nice spring weekends (OK, so the equinox is a couple weeks away, but I can’t wait) to hose off that air conditioner condenser or heat pump.  It is about to start working a lot harder to keep the house comfortable, and if the coil is clean, it will lower the operating pressure in that unit and reduce the energy consumption.  And it is cheaper than a professional cleaning by someone like us.  If you can manage to get the top off the unit without damaging the fan blades or disconnecting the fan motor, that’s better (be sure to kill the power first), as it is best to wash from the inside out (opposite the direction of airflow), but if not, even a cursory hose off with the garden hose is sufficient to get all the grass and such off (you do remember to mow with the chute pointing away from the unit, right?).

If you are like me, it is also time to get the indoor seeds started for the garden.  Happy growing, and stay comfortable.