How was your day?

I went to bed last night knowing that it was freezing drizzle last night, with temperatures plummeting down to a low of 2 degrees. Today, the high temp is expected to reach 9 degrees. I admit that I kinda went to bed last night thinking, hoping, that Julia's school would be canceled. That I wouldn't have to wake her up and tell her to get ready for school, that instead we'd just get to play all day long together. (Note: She loves going to school, and school is very good for her. This is merely a selfish hope I had.)

Alas, school was not canceled.

I let the dog out this morning, knowing that the dog chain was frozen to the deck. Rather than digging it out with my fingernails and then trying to release the frozen clasp, I just let Daisy out without the chain, thinking she'd go pee real quick and then come back in. Daisy and I have this kind of an agreement when the snow is falling thick. But, this morning? I was dismayed to watch her run off.

So, I ran off after her, like a good dog mom should. In the freezing, dark morning air. Stupid dog.

That's how my day started.

When I got back inside and sentenced the dog to her kennel for the rest of her day, I thought I would reward myself by warming my toes on the heater vent. The heater vent was cold.

I went to turn up the heat. Nothing happened. I didn't hear the furnace kick on.

I paced the hallway of my dark house - glad that I was the only one awake at the time... the dog already deep into her early morning nap (she falls asleep *that fast*), and the kids snuggled warm in their beds. I imagined husby getting up soon to shower and leave for work.

I paced some more before finally deciding that this heater problem was a concern significant enough to wake husby over. Luckily, he was just getting up as it was...

With the quick flip of a switch in the fuse box, the heat came on and I hailed Rich, going on and on about how he saved the day. (How do guys know to flip the switch in the breaker box anyway? I had no idea what to do about it... my husby is so smart.)

He left for work, and as the door closed, the heat went off for good.

It never kicked back on to maintain the toast 68 degrees that I had it set at. And when I tried to turn it back on/up manually - nothing happened. De ja vu.

So I paced. Up and down the hallway, wondering what I should do. Then, like the helpless wife that I am, I called my husby and whined about it for a while.

I tried a few things - even that handy breaker switch in the garage. But, nothing worked. I just watched as the temperature on the thermostat continued to drop... 61 degrees, 60 degrees, 58 degrees.

As it happens, I had a play date scheduled for today - someone I know from church was coming by for a visit... her kids could play with "my" kids and she and I could visit and enjoy having "adult conversation" ...something that, for me, is hard to come by these days.

She helped entertain the kiddos while I made phone calls and scheduled the furnace guy to come visit. In the meantime, husby came home from work to start a fire in our wood burning stove for us, and to light the pilot on the gas fireplace in the living room. He's such a good husband/daddy/business partner. The temp went from 52 to 54 and stayed at around 56-57 until the furnace guy showed up.

The furnace guy had a 4 hour window of 1pm to 5pm. He was here at 1:10pm. What a blessing. I was happy to see him.

He quickly told/showed me what was wrong with the furance - a simple "limit switch" that keeps it from getting so hot that the wires and things burn up... So, I agreed that he should fix it and be on his way. I was very happy with the $188 bill. I wrote my check, waited impatiently for him to fix it and turn the heat on and be on his merry way. And that, he did.

Except that moments after the furnace began working again, he shut it off right away declaring a second problem, one that is more serious. He mumbled something about the fan and the circuit box and he went to his van a few times and fumbled around and then told me that the circuit board was broke, and would need to be replaced so that the air would blow out of the furnace and into the house. That little piece of computer was $599.

Ouch. But, he fixed the heater and stole all my money and went on with his merry way, and now we have heat again. In fact, I just went and turned the thermostat down because the wood burning stove is doing a fine job of keeping us warm for now. The thermostat reads a nice toasty 70 degrees.

So, if you wanted the short version of this story, it would go something like this:
dog ran away
heater broke
cost all our savings to fix it
the dog is back
the heat is on
alas, my money is still gone :( boo hoo

The kicker of the story is that the dog is miserably cold. She shivers and paces around, trying to find a warm spot for her naps. She's used to laying right next to the entertainment center - because the large unit is centered over a heater vent, and the heat comes out from under the 1/2 inch crack below.. Today, that was not a warm cozy spot for her. She finally parked it in front of the lit fireplace. And fell asleep. And snored.

So, wait a minute - the dog makes me run outside in my sweats and slippers to chase her down on the frozen grass, but can't handle the house when it's below 70? Does she not understand how disappointing this $800 service bill is to us? Does she not know that, because of her behavior today, part of the money is going to come out of her toys/goodies fund?

She even groaned and yawned when I made her move over to share the hearth with me. Bitch.



And so, how was your day?