The Mast-Head: One Cold Morning

The heat went out at home on Sunday night, though I did not mention it before bedtime. Instead, I put a space heater in the coldest bedroom of the house and hoped the rest of the rooms would not get too cold before a repairman arrived in the morning.

Adelia, back from boarding school for the Thanksgiving break, texted from her room in the morning wondering what was up. But by that time, I had called McCoy Fuels and built a fire in the kitchen fireplace to have a little heat to drink my coffee by. 

Leo the pig, sharply affronted by the temperature in the house, let his feelings be known by knocking over my favorite wooden chair and then standing close to the hearth. Sitting at the table as the sun brightened the sky, I drank two cups of coffee before going into the basement to make room for the oil burner guy. (It is always overloaded.)

It was a relatively easy fix, as it turned out. A transformer needed replacement, and the heat was back by 9:30.

A couple of years ago, a plumber looked at the house’s heating system and said it was past time for a new one. With all the money saved on oil, it would pay for itself right away, he said. 

I either forgot about getting prices on a new boiler or put it on a low-priority mental list of things to deal with, and then forgot, the same way I notice then forget the reminders from the fuel company to get the annual cleaning done on the oil burner. 

The way it is with things around the house, there is always something else to think about. Not infrequently I declare to anyone who will listen that I am going to chuck it all and go live in a yurt. But yurts are probably a pain in the neck, too. Plus, now that the oil burner is working again, at least there is heat.

I am not sure how that would work in a yurt. And I am sure the pig would be none too pleased. Well, that and I should probably go solar anyway.