pstlyfdiva's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brrrr it's cold in here, there must be some toros in the atmosphere 100 gallons of oil to heat home: $239 Cost of technician to come out after hours to fix furnace: $150 Regaining feeling in toes after furnaced repaired
Despite being home both Thursday and Friday all day, that thought never graced my ever full mind again, until Sunday night, when our thermostat was set on 70, but it was only 67 and blowing cool air. C checked the tank, and yes we were out of oil. Joy! We strategically set out our two space heaters – one in the living room and one in the bedroom – Sunday night we stayed nice and toasty – the temperature inside only dropped to 64. C ordered 100 gallons of oil, first thing in the morning. It was delivered midday, but when we got home at 5 the house was 60F but felt more like 45. Uh Oh. I tried to bleed the lines, which I had done a couple times before. I couldn’t even get them to bleed. I pushed the reset button…nothing. I eventually gave up, the house was now 57 and it was promising to get much colder. We called for service and got an answering service, which said they would contact a technician who would call us back shortly. He didn’t call until 9pm and said that he had 4 people in front of us and that it would be very late, were we sure we wanted him to come. Yes, our pipes might have frozen otherwise. We hunkered down on the sofa – 2 pairs of socks each, heavy pants and tops, individual blankets and a heavy comforter, plus 1 pug in a hoodie hiding under the covers. 56 degrees. I had to pee. It was too cold to get out of the little bubble we had created (that in no way shape or form was actually warm). Sit and wait. Sit and wait. I can hold it. NO I CAN’T. I made a mad dash to the bathroom. Cold seat! Cold Seat! Why oh why did we run out of oil? 55 degrees. Our thermostat doesn’t go any lower than 55. The phone rings at 10:15, technician is on his way. Yes! And it wasn’t even 2AM, which I thought was what he meant by “very late”. He got there a bit later and asked very seriously how many times we pushed the reset button. “Um…3, I think?” He looks at us and says, “Now are you sure, because if there is oil sitting in there and I light it the cap can blow.” “Ummm…I am pretty sure.” If I had known there was going to be a life or death test on that later I would have made notes, damn it! He told us to go upstairs and keep the phone close by. You know, in case we heard a big boom. Thirty minutes and no big boom later I felt a strange sensation. Was that heat coming out of the vent? By George it was! All hail the furnace technician! Word to the wise: Do not run out of oil and make the furnace mad on the coldest night in 15 years. 2:13 p.m. - 2007-02-06 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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