Flowers would have been just fine.

So how was your Valentine’s Day?  Mine was….interesting.  Remember while reading the following Facebook post I wrote yesterday that was minus 6 outside.

Screenshot_2016-02-14-05-27-53

 

Valentine’s Day 2016…the timeline:

5:00 am…Wake up to use the bathroom. Notice the toilet seat is frigid.
5:05 am…Check thermostat. 67 degrees downstairs, 64 degrees upstairs. As both are set at 69 degrees, this is concerning.
5:10 am…Go out to garage to look at boiler read out. It’s flashing a trip code and shut itself down.
5:11 am…Wake up husband and point towards the garage while making pitiful freezing sounds.
5:15…Go out to the garage and flip the breaker you think pairs with the boiler. Nothing happens. Try several more times.
5:16 am…Crabby husband comes out to the garage wanting to know why I’m flipping the breaker for the bathroom off and on repeatedly while he’s trying to use the bathroom.                                                                                                   
5:18 am…Husband sees that the read out is flashing a trip code and has shut itself down…feel vindicated.                                                                             5:22 am…Put on more clothes.                                                                         5:25 am…Husband flips the breaker to reset the boiler. Boiler comes back on.     5:30 am…Go back to bed because it’s cold and dark.                                           7:00 am…Get woken up by husband who says something’s up with the boiler, you need to get up.                                                                                           7:02 am…Walk out to a stink and haze-filled garage..something has burned and you wonder exactly how much your insurance covers while opening a door to air out garage. Have a flashback to the movie Backdraft…are now afraid to open the door.                                                                                                           7:10 am…Everything has been shut down by husband who goes out and confirms that there is no ice on the vent..something in the system has burned out. Notice scorch marks on the wall above boiler…feel faint.                          7:30 am…Continue to stare at wall until Dead River guy arrives.                    8:00 am…Watch husband set up space heater so kids are warm enough upstairs…Open all blinds so sun warms house.  Still haven’t had coffee.         8:30 am…Dead River confirms that boiler is fried and can’t be repaired as it’s a model no longer made. Set up emergency install for tomorrow morning.        9:00 am…Remind self that house did not in fact burn down, we have big space heaters and good smoke/carbon detectors.                                                     9:15 am…Fantasize about life in a warmer state.

Matt, the very nice guy from DR who schlepped out to confirm boiler death.

Matt, the very nice guy from DR who came to confirm boiler death.

We did make it thru the night, very comfortably, in fact.  The biggest inconvenience so far has been no hot water…pretty much every dish we own was dirty, so I heated up a couple of lobster pots worth of hot water this morning to wash dishes with and then another to wash my hair in.  Just like Little House on the Prairie…fun!  (I’m lying…this took forever and it sucked)  We’ve had to rough it any number of times during power outages and I always think of Ma, from Little House on the Prairie.  Ma was a freaking saint, I would have killed Charles, blamed it on a bear and moved my kids and myself right back to civilization.  Next year instead of a new boiler…I think just plain old flowers would be fine.

 

Allyson Sorenson

About Allyson Sorenson

Bangor mom. BDN blogger. Volvo lover. Coffee drinker.