I woke up Wed feeling like I could breathe a sigh of relief…the elections were over. I didn’t care who won or lost; I merely wanted my beloved GEICO Gecko commercials back. Naturally, I assumed my day would begin with coffee and a session w/friends on Twitter.
Never assume. You see…when I awoke I realized it was rather chilly in the house – it was so cold even EmmaLou, Golden Destroyer, was snuggled up close to me for warmth. That’s cold.
I threw on sweats over my jammies and stumbled downstairs to look at the thermostat on our almost brand new furnace. It read 59 degrees. It should have read 64 degrees. I fiddled with the thermostat, then went to make coffee knowing full well I would figure this out if I had some java hit my brain cells.
Java hitting my brain cells was no help whatsoever. When I returned to the thermostat the temp had lowered to 57. This was not good. It was 6 a.m. and I wanted some heat. No matter what I tried, I could not get the furnace to kick in. So I stuck my hands in my coffee to unfreeze my fingers and off to the basement EmmaLou and I went to scream at the Furnace from Hades.
Guess what I found? Oodles and oodles of water all over the floor. There was so much water in that basement I half imagined Noah would peek around the corner holding a piece of gopher wood in his hand. And… yes… I freaked. I got closer to the furnace and saw that there was an active stream of water flowing down the furnace, into the furnace, and out of the furnace – all at the same time, but I was too freaked to locate the source. It was fight or flight time and I chose flight.
Back upstairs EmmaLou and I went. She to curl up on the family room couch and lick the water from her paws; me to the phone to call the furnace maven and leave a frantic message.
Did I mention this is a new furnace … as in 2009-new? Did I mention this is not the first time I have had it come to a full stop and do its impression of a 90-year old with a full bladder and no Depends in sight? Ack.
I had a full day planned – a meeting w/my pastor, prep work for my small group, and some retail therapy. I had no time for this nonsense. BTW, throughout all the up-the-stairs-down-the-stairs-muttering-the-bad-words-under-the-breath and the frantic phone call, Devoted Spouse blissfully slept tucked in under his favorite blankie. gah…
Turns out it was the intake hose for the humidifier and it had a 3-inch tear in it. Piece of plastic crapola…the nice Repair Dude replaced all the plastic hoses with copper tubing so this never happens again. In the meantime, water had also gotten into the furnace causing it to short out and necessitating a new control board. I continued to freak. Was this covered under warranty? Would our home insurance cover it if the appliance people didn’t? Was I going to get breakfast?
As usual, I was in panic mode for no good reason. Yes the floor got wet – okay it got very wet and water seeped under the sheetrock on one wall and the trim so I’m a tad concerned about that. But the good news is Repair Dude tore out the plastic hosing, replaced with copper, and figured out how to get the new control panel to work (the inside was wet and it kept shorting out so he blew on it to dry it out…yes I said he blew on it to dry it out…making me wonder in what Chapter of the Repair Dude Handbook he learned that trick).
Voila – heat. Yes, I know appliances and I don’t live well together. They don’t like me and I have no respect for them and I don’t expect this to change any time in the future…did I mention we need a new hot water heater? … sigh
