David did some troubleshooting at 6 AM before heading to work and was unsuccessful getting the thing to turn on. Neither of us has ever lived in a house with the furnace/heating/thermostat set-up so David called a repairman. Then I realized I was going to have to let a stranger into the house to fix the heater.
I hate waiting for repairmen and sitting around while they work. Not because I have important places to be. But as a young female it goes against everything I've been taught about protecting myself. Don't let strangers in the house. Especially, when home alone. I feel like I should have some heavy, blunt object at hand at all times. If the repairman comments on my habit of carrying around a hammer, I'll say, "I'm from California. WE'RE CRAZY! We elected the Terminator for our governor and passed legislation that mandates commercial livestock have enough room to stand and turn in their cages before they're slaughtered!"
I spent most of the morning in bed, staying warm, as the temperature in the house registered about 40. Not drastically cold but not pleasant. I got out of bed when the repairman called to tell me he was on his way, bundled up and got a crash course in our furnace.
Moments like these I am upfront about my So-Cal bred ignorance about the ways of living in winter. I told the repairman, "I don't know how to drive in snow/heat a home/shoot a deer. I'm from California. Southern California". This gets me insider tips on how to live in Ohio. Like this tip: run water if you are going to turn the heater off at night (like we do because the heater kicking on wakes me up) so the pipes don't freeze and then burst.
The minute he said that about a thousand light bulbs turned on in my head. Last night while battling insomnia I kept hearing thuds, cracks, snaps and noises I had never heard before. I wondered if something in the house was freezing but what I couldn't say or how to go about finding out and remedying the situation were all beyond my knowledge. Yes, I have lived in cold weather before. But not like this and I was five. I have vague memories of adults talking about bursting pipes. When David turned the heater on and no heat came my fear was something vital had frozen. How will we know if the pipes burst? What if the pipes have already broken and as I type gallons of water are pooling under the house? And why is it when I call David, in a moment of true panic, he just says he'll take care of it when he gets home?
Good News: The repairman is fixing the furnace as I type. Our furnace was manufactured near-by so the part he needed was available. The furnace is old and the repair is routine. Basically, the motor was going to go out eventually. It just happened to break when the newspaper reported the coldest weather is coming our way. He fixed one problem but now there is another. Repairman just told me he needs another part. Hopefully, this one is on his truck. It's not. Back out he goes.
That's part of the bad news. Also, this is going to cost a chunk of cash. But what choice do we have? We can't stay in a house without heat. Also, David didn't call the landlord first to tell her the furnace broke and see if it was okay for him to call someone. She might have someone already under contract. So negotiations on who and how much costs are going to be covered have not been discussed. Our landlord seems reasonable and she may be fine with what we have done or she might be angry. I'm letting David handle that bit. We both need to learn how to live on our own. I got the furnace lesson and he can have the landlord lesson. As soon as we get our degree in "living as responsible adults in a cold climate" I'm taking my enlightened self back to California.
The cost of not freezing to death.
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