no heat? no sleep.

The pleasure cruise is over ladies and gentlemen. We were sailing through this home ownership thing maintenance-free until the furnace decided to rear its ugly head and say “Screw you” yesterday. Our alarm went off around 6, and I knew something was wrong. I could practically see my breath. My head felt numb with cold. The heat obviously hadn’t been on all night. I braved the cold and got up, my feet freezing as I raced to the thermostat. I cranked it up to 71 and waited. Nothing. It was 59 degrees inside, and our furnace was playing hard to get. Matt flicked the reset switch, and it kicked in for a minute or two before quitting. Great. So, last night, I got home from work, kept my winter hat on, and called my dad for some long-distance help. I found myself crouching on the cold basement floor and staring at a red blinking light—the furnace’s way of telling me something wasn’t working. Ever try to stare at a red blinking light and try to determine how many long flashes and short flashes there are? You should really try it sometime. After a while, they all look the same and you feel like you’re going mad. I finally counted correctly (thank you first grade math), scanned the code list, and determined we were experiencing ignition lockout. My dad helped me get it working for a bit, but then it quit again. When Matt got home, he announced, “We’re not going to bed until it’s working.” Now, I don’t know about you, but “Furnace Repairwoman” isn’t something I put on my resume. After dinner, we trooped downstairs with the manual to reset the entire furnace. It sounded somewhat dangerous. Turn off the power, smell for gas, yadda yadda. For someone who doesn’t like gas or flames, it was definitely cause for panic. Matt followed the directions, and when I turned the thermostat up, the heat miraculously started. It was cause for celebration. We kicked it up to 70, and I finally took off my winter hat.