Looks like I may have found the answer. I reached into the blower compartment, and cleaned out a couple of leaves and twigs - in winter I tend to not use the cabin filters for better air velocity and these fell in at some time. That by itself did not fix the problem. But what I found is that all I had to do was give the squirrel cage blower a little spin and away it goes. Anyone else seen this? Would that require new bearings? Any thoughts? A little awkward to give it a spin every time it doesn't start up by itself (75% of the time), but doable.