A Tad Chilly

Sorry we haven’t written in a while – it’s been a touch too cold to sit at the computer and madly type away. You see, since Friday morning we’ve had no heat in the house. None. Nada. Zilch. Zippo. The Big Goose Egg.

Our thermostat in the hallway of our second floor is currently reading 39 degrees. We’ve managed to get our living room up to about 60 by building HUGE fires in the fireplace (we’re now down to about one hour’s worth of firewood) and running a modest space heater.

We’ve called numerous plumbers, with no luck. We had a plumber show up yesterday at 11 a.m., work for 20 minutes and leave claiming he was buying a part. He never came back.

Our regular plumber, who is not that reliable in the first place, was not available but kept calling to check in on our non-existent progress. He finally referred a buddy of his, who was kind enough to come over after going two days with no sleep due to this cold weather and many frozen pipes, and worked tirelessly for two hours to try and figure out why our furnace isn’t working. He finally figured it out, and said that if he’s able to even GET the part (we have an old furnace that isn’t even MADE anymore), it wouldn’t be til Monday.

We stayed at our neighbor’s house last night, and believe me when I say we had that room jacked with heat after spending Friday night in our own house without it. Tonight we’re most likely going to a hotel.

The tireless plumber called us this morning and recommended a way to fix the furnace, which will cost $1000 (includes labor). At this point we’re desperate for it to be fixed because we can’t afford a brand new furnace ($4500) that we’re taking him up the offer. He’ll be here tomorrow in the late morning to begin the job. Hopefully by Monday night we’ll have heat again and will be slowly bringing the thermostat up to a normal level. We’d kill for 60 degrees at this point. In fact, in the few minutes I’ve spent typing this up, my fingers are now frozen.

As for the animals, the cats seem to be faring okay. Ginger and Freddie are huddled together as always, and Mini seems to be fine as well. Stinky is sleeping on our down comforter. But poor Cooper, because we are surrounded by anti-dog people, we have no place to put him. As soon as I post this I’m on the hunt online for a pet-friendly hotel in our area and then the four of us will pack a bag and check in for the day. A mini-vacation from ourselves, it seems.

See ya later – and keep warm!