Allow me this disclaimer up front. I live in Texas. Last nights low was 38F.
Most of this week I’ve been pushing to get all my Christmas shopping done. I really don’t want to have to do any this weekend. This means that after work, I trudge forth and shop, travelling from store to store looking for I-dunno-what-I’ll-know-it-when-I-find-it, to fill all those spots in my shopping list for family members who are really just impossible to shop for. I’m making progress, but slowly, and I get home around 10pm each night.
Last night, Mrs. Inkblot calls around 7pm. “I heard a noise.” She was in the garage getting some firewood, and hears voices just outside the door. 20ft to sidewalk from our garage, there’s NO ONE that ought to be there. She calls out, voices dissapate. She goes back in and calls me, sitting next to the alarm panel just in case. Problem: we had a new front door installed today, and the security people won’t be out until next week.
“So, we can’t even use it?” I ask, think the door sensor is just dangling, and if the alarm thinks the door is open, won’t arm.
“No,” she says, “they said I can turn it on, it just won’t cover the front door.” “OK,” I say, “turn it on then…it covers the rest of the house, and anyone going for the front door would have to break glass, and the glass-break detectors will catch that.” “Oh,” she says, “I didn’t think of that.”
So, crisis averted*, I resume shopping. Trudge, trudge, trudge. About 9:30, another call. “Honey, the thermostat is humming.” “Hmmmm…turn it off.” She does. “Turn it back on.” She does. “The fan isn’t coming back on. Sounds like someone trying to start a car, but it won’t turn over.” Sigh. "OK, call the AC people back out.
Yes, back out. While our door was being installed today, they AC people were out to check over our heating/air conditioning unit. Yearly check up, they looked it over, pronounced it healthy. I get home soon after that, and beat the ac guy by about 30 min. He looks into our HVAC, and pronounces the fan DOA. Sigh. About $500 replacement, and they won’t have one until tomorrow. So, we get to sleep without heat. Granted, we didn’t break freezing last night, altho we had previous nights this week. It was still pretty durn cold. And, all the bustling about to determine the problem, course of action, et al, kept us up past midnight. So, I’m now at work, having crawled out of bed at 5am, wishing I had much more sleep than that. In my favor: practically everyone, including my boss, are on vacation today (for shopping, I guess). I’d take a day, but I have nothing left in the bank. Still, I won’t have to be terribly productive.
It’s just…we go along like good little children, saving our pennies where we can. Life has been good of late, so for Christmas we buy ourselves a couple of niceites. A new big screen TV. A new front door (the old one’s frame was rotting). Repaired some holes in our house caused by bees (long story). Add all that up, normaly Christmas shopping, the annual AC inspection, and quarterly pest control visit, it’s not been a cheap December. So, for this to happen is very trying.
It’s been a stressful time. Is it January yet? No, wait, I still got shopping to finish. Damn.
InkBlot
*if you’re curious, at this point, why I didn’t return straight home to protect my innocent wife, my innocent wife owns a gun…whereas I do not. Yes. I live in that Texas. :eek: