So, this weekend we were without heat. It's been below freezing weather for twenty days in a row here in Salt Lake--from what the news reporters say, it's the second longest cold stretch in Utah history.
Saturday morning at about 6 a.m., we were all suddenly woken by the sound of what seemed like a hovering aircraft. It lasted for almost a minute, then the house went silent again. Bianca was up, Eric jumped up to see what was wrong, I tried to sleep to no avail.
As it turns out, our furnace completely died. We called the heating guy and he came out in the afternoon but told us that we either buy a new board (not sure why? but it would cost $400) or replace the entire furnace in our house (which would cost $1200). Neither of which could be replaced until Monday.
Our house is only six years old. The furnace shouldn't be going out. But there was no time to think of that, while we were shivering around the gas fireplace, our only viable heat option without the furnace running.
It was awful. I didn't want to walk in the kitchen, the ice cold tiles seeped right through my cashmere cozy socks. So I couldn't cook anything. I didn't want to get dressed, too cold to take off any clothes, so we just sat. And sat. And sat.
At least we had a laptop we could bring and use in front of the fireplace. Bianca and I created fairies on the Disney Fairies web site. Eric got so bored he even made a fairy, a butch one named Ash. (Right, I think I promised not to tell anyone about that, didn't I? Sorry.)
When the new furnace was finally up and running late Monday afternoon, I came back to a warm house. And I've been living blissfully since. It seems like such a luxury. But this got me thinking--what other necessities have you done without that have seemed like luxuries after the fact?
I'd love to hear your stories. The only other one I've done without happens everytime I go home to visit my parents, where the plumbing is sporatic--I know some of you can attest to that.
