It was the day before New Year's eve and I was buzzing around, doing my thing. Anne, my daughter, was home from her university for the holidays and had decided to use the desk in my office to play online games with her friends. She wrapped herself up in a blanket and snuggled into my desk chair. Being winter in northern Wisconsin with the outside temperatures quickly dropping, neither one of us thought much about the chill.
Around 5:30 pm, Anne emerged from my office, still wrapped in her blanket to sit on the love seat in the living room and talk about dinner preparations. She was hungry.
Snickers, our dog, walked over to nuzzle her. He had been acting like he wanted to jump up into my lap all afternoon but would not sit with me. He had torn his dew claw earlier in the day and it was very sensitive. Now that Anne was in the common room, he went to her. I'm sure he was hoping that maybe Anne would figure out what I had not.
He was right. She did. No sooner did she touch him than she said, "Oooh! He's shivering!" Then she picked him up onto the loveseat, careful of his injured paw, and covered him with her blanket. He settled down instantly, resting his head on her leg and closing his eyes.
I went over to touch his head and sure enough, his fur was cold. Anne's discovery that the dog was cold led to a brief discussion between Anne and me where we both agreed that we were also cold. She asked me what the temperature inside the house was. I walked over to my thermostat and looked... all the while stating with confidence that it was 71 degrees (21.67 C) inside.
Well, the thermostat was indeed set to 71 degrees and it was turned on. My furnace is only one and a half years old, so it should have been 71 degrees inside the house. But it was not. The inside temperature was 59 (15 C). No wonder we were cold!
At Anne's brilliant suggestion, I went into the basement to see if the pilot light was on. (She had a pilot light issue in her campus housing earlier this year.) Unfortunately, I could not figure out how to open up my new furnace to see the pilot light. So I felt the outside of the furnace. It was cold. I took the furnace's information booklet into my hand and went back upstairs with it. Before opening the booklet, I turned off the thermostat and then turned it on again. I hoped maybe that would restart the pilot light. It did not.
Trying to read the booklet to figure out how to open the furnace and just check for the pilot light was an exercise in confusion, frustration and futility. So I did what any normal adult woman would do under the circumstance: I called my parents to tell them I was coming over. Mom tried to tell me what I needed to check on my furnace -- all of which I had already done. She then agreed that we could make the 3+ hour drive down to their house but first she wanted me to talk to my dad.
Around 5:30 pm, Anne emerged from my office, still wrapped in her blanket to sit on the love seat in the living room and talk about dinner preparations. She was hungry.
Snickers, our dog, walked over to nuzzle her. He had been acting like he wanted to jump up into my lap all afternoon but would not sit with me. He had torn his dew claw earlier in the day and it was very sensitive. Now that Anne was in the common room, he went to her. I'm sure he was hoping that maybe Anne would figure out what I had not.He was right. She did. No sooner did she touch him than she said, "Oooh! He's shivering!" Then she picked him up onto the loveseat, careful of his injured paw, and covered him with her blanket. He settled down instantly, resting his head on her leg and closing his eyes.
I went over to touch his head and sure enough, his fur was cold. Anne's discovery that the dog was cold led to a brief discussion between Anne and me where we both agreed that we were also cold. She asked me what the temperature inside the house was. I walked over to my thermostat and looked... all the while stating with confidence that it was 71 degrees (21.67 C) inside.
Well, the thermostat was indeed set to 71 degrees and it was turned on. My furnace is only one and a half years old, so it should have been 71 degrees inside the house. But it was not. The inside temperature was 59 (15 C). No wonder we were cold!
At Anne's brilliant suggestion, I went into the basement to see if the pilot light was on. (She had a pilot light issue in her campus housing earlier this year.) Unfortunately, I could not figure out how to open up my new furnace to see the pilot light. So I felt the outside of the furnace. It was cold. I took the furnace's information booklet into my hand and went back upstairs with it. Before opening the booklet, I turned off the thermostat and then turned it on again. I hoped maybe that would restart the pilot light. It did not.
Trying to read the booklet to figure out how to open the furnace and just check for the pilot light was an exercise in confusion, frustration and futility. So I did what any normal adult woman would do under the circumstance: I called my parents to tell them I was coming over. Mom tried to tell me what I needed to check on my furnace -- all of which I had already done. She then agreed that we could make the 3+ hour drive down to their house but first she wanted me to talk to my dad.
- To Be Continued -
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