An Auspicious Day

Today is an auspicious day. It is one I am certain I will remember long after the sun has set. I know I will smile at the end of it. So, what is so special about today, you ask? Answer: we will have heat on the lower levels of our house before this day is done!

Yes, heat. The reason this is so wonderful is not just because it is chilly outside today and I would like to be warm when on the lower three levels of my house. (We have two zone heat which means that all the bedrooms on the top two levels are heated by a heat pump that is working just fine. The bottom three levels are heated by a gas furnace that is seriously falling down on the job.) It is not even just because it was cold last night and cooking dinner was an uncomfortable endeavor. No, it is because we haven't had heat on the lower three levels of our house since fall of 2013.

Last fall when it started getting colder and we realized we had a problem, we were really tight money wise. So we decided to suck it up for a while and make do. And we did. Then came the Polar Vortex. We lived in our bedrooms and the den which is on one of the lower levels and has a gas fireplace. We were cold, but decided we could tough it out. And we did. Then, when the weather was warmer and the heat not necessary, we basically forgot. You know, kind of like child birth, where you forget the pain and the work (and did I mention the pain?) And you don't remember how hard it is until the first contraction of your next pregnancy hits... Yeah, we were like that. No memory until this fall, when cold weather hit again. And it hit earlier than last year.

We had talked a couple of months ago about getting the furnace fixed. But it wasn't cold yet, and we had other things going on, so it didn't make it to the top of the To Do List. Then, the end of October it got cold. And in November, it got colder. By the time this month rolled around, I was getting cranky and was really tired of being cold. In addition, our middle daughter, Katie, and her boyfriend Paul, moved into the bottom level of our house. They have a couple of space heaters, but it is still chilly down there. And still way beyond chilly on the main level and the den level. (In case you haven't figured it out yet, we have a tri-level that kind of exploded. Five heated and cooled levels, well, usually heated anyway...)

So, I decided yesterday that it was time. Late in the afternoon I looked up the phone number for the HVAC guys and placed the call. They had closed 15 minutes earlier. I almost cried. I had decided it was time, and had begun to believe that we could have heat the next day (today). But they were CLOSED! I took a deep calming breath and set my alarm to remind me to call this morning. I woke up earlier than I intended, so I decided to call earlier. Within a half hour of their opening, I was on the phone. Fully expecting to hear that they were slammed today and it would be tomorrow at the earliest, I told the very friendly woman that our furnace wasn't working and then waited for her response, which was..."Let me tell Scott what is going on and see if he has any questions for you before he heads out to your house today." TODAY!!! Yes! Heat in the house by the end of the day!

I am a HAPPY person right now. Something as simple as heat is making me smile and want to do a little victory dance. So, as I finish writing this, I am preparing myself to brave the cold downstairs for hopefully one of the last times. A couple of Thomas's Cranberry English Muffins and a mug of Irish Breakfast Tea are calling my name. Of course, as soon as the muffins are buttered and the tea bag is in the mug with the boiling water, I will be hitting the steps to come back upstairs to my bedroom. I'm not going to hang out in the cold any longer than necessary. But tonight, for dinner, we might just all eat in the dining room. In the warm dining room. Assuming I can get the table cleared off...