Lion and Magic Boy

My furnace is on the blink. Literally. I go down there and stare balefully at the big metal box that (I think) is the furnace, and there’s a blinking light. A red blinking light. Was that there before, I wonder. Before we all noticed how cold it was getting in the house.

I’m pretty sure there hasn’t been heat since Friday, but the temperatures weren’t all that low until the night before last when the rain set in (which will supposedly flood the nearby river, but we’re not close enough to that), the rain that is feet of snow in more northerly places, the snow we’ve been denied all winter. I would have liked two feet of snow in mid-April.

But yesterday it was decidedly cold in the house, and the children noticed it (Saturday I walked around asking, Is it cold? Or is it just me? and was assured that it was indeed just me, and even constant checking of the thermostat revealed little since the indicated temperature of the room was identical to what the thermostat was set on, so stop complaing and put on a sweater!) and ran to my bed, shivering, after they awoke, despite their many layers of snuggly wool jammies. Eric’s hands were icy despite his many layers and we snuggled under the covers while I warmed him, the two of us whispering and laughing to some unspoken joke.

Downstairs, the thermostat read 60 degrees. Aha! I thought. I was right! It IS cold in here! Vindicated, I felt smug. For about ten seconds. Then I switched on the gas fireplace, how handy! to warm the downstairs. I spoke to Eric about it and assured him that it was HOT! We have been talking a lot lately about HOT! in terms of the kitchen, and I get that he gets it now. He had fun playing with Serena, though, teasing her, as she has appointed herself Eric-monitor near the fireplace while he would inch slightly closer to it, grinning, hearing her yell NO NO NO ERIC HOT HOT HOT at him.

So it was a little like camping out, an adventure, yesterday, this no-heat thing. It continued to be raw and cold and wet outside while we remained inside. I sent the children down into the yet-to-be-fully-unpacked boxes, of which only a few remain, to investigate the extra-blanket situation. One purple blanket that used to be Nathaniel’s before he got his duvet that fits a twin bed, one throw blanket-thing that could cover Serena, and one quilt given me by my grandmother (who died a few years ago at the age of 101) that was made by her aunt.

Plus we found the little electric space heater too. We were set!

This morning I phoned my landlord, an accountant, who evidently has nothing much to do today, this being April 16, the day after April 15 that falls this year on a weekend. So I might hear from him, when, next week?

I heard that this month will be, over the entire U.S., the coldest April on record in something like 150 years.

[tags] heat, landlords, furnace, cold[/tags]