After another year, I did some more preventive
maintenance on my water heater. When I pulled
the anode, I found that it was coated with calcium
and other stuff thoughtfully supplied by our water
Co.

Mr. Ohmmeter (Hi, Speff!) indicated that conductivity
between the threads and the outside of the coating
was down to nearly nothing.

Several passes with the angle grinder deleted the
coating from the outside of the anode rod.
Ahh. Back down to nearly zero ohms.

Rinsed, taped and back in the tank.
Gas back on, depressure valve off. Water supply
back on. We are back on the air.

Sure glad I checked.

--Winston