As it turns out, the furnace just needed a bit of cleaning. The water tank, unfortunately, needed replacing. Here's a photo of the old one leaving, taken from the balcony — Harley and I stayed upstairs in the bedroom during all the commotion (I left Harley in there while I popped out for the picture).

By now all four of my readers know that I'm a lazy slug, and lately — what with the grey days of Michigan Winters and all — I've been even less likely to update The Finster Log, despite all the photos I've been taking of Mr. Adorable. Unfortunately, it has taken just about this long — three weeks or so since Thanksgiving — for Harley to get back to being comfortable about going to bed after being so terribly startled in the middle of the night I mentioned so long ago.

Are all kids this fussy?

He hasn't slept up in our bedroom since that one night, but I've had to force him off onto the perch on his door a few times. His next trick was to step onto his Sleepy Perch, but then climb right off it once I turned my back. I'd hang around for a few minutes, encouraging him to climb back to the Sleepy Perch, but I wouldn't always wait for him to get there. Mean witch that I am. One morning I found him waiting for me on a different perch entirely, but I'm not sure if he climbed down in the middle of the night, or just as I came downstairs in the morning. Such a fuss! Poor bird.

Anyway, you'll be happy to know that two out of the past three nights Harley has stepped onto his Sleepy Perch and stayed there. So hopefully we're all pretty much back to normal sleeping patterns. Finally. Fingers crossed.