Upon returning after 6 mo. the only major problem was the water heater
pilot was out. I left it in the pilot position when we left. My neighbor
pointed out it has a vacation position. Is it better to use vacation
position, leave it in pilot position or turn it completely off?

Learned our lesson with the water softener last year, left it on vacation,
it lost it's setting with a power failure and reverted to the default
cycling three times a week on power up. Unplugged it this time and
reprogrammed it on return.

If I could just get the wife to go with plastic plants we could turn the
water off and not have the neighbor watering them.

Wish I could talk he into cleaning out and shutting off the fridge also.

There was a temperature sensor out there that calls a phone when the temp.
goes down. Anyone use one of these?