billroper: (Default)
[personal profile] billroper
The other thing that marked yesterday as unusual was that I didn't want to get out of bed in the morning.

Ok, not that it's unusual that I don't want to get out of bed. But it's unusual that I don't want to get out of bed because it's really, really cold in the bedroom. I'd stick a hand out and go "Wow! That's cold!" Looking at the sun shining in through the bedroom door, I concluded that we were being bested by greenhouse effect in our dining room. That's where we have nice east-facing windows and the thermostat for the furnace, so it was probably nicely toasty warm there and keeping the furnace from kicking on and heating the rest of the house.

I finally hopped out of bed and took a shower. The shower was nice and hot. Everything else, not so much. I pulled on my clothes and stepped out into the hall to check the indoor / outdoor thermometer there. Fifteen degrees outside. No surprise there -- [livejournal.com profile] daisy_knotwise had asked me last night if I'd closed the garage door, because the bedroom had already seemed cold the night before. It had and I had, so that wasn't the source of the problem.

Fifty five degrees inside. Gack! Time to go check the thermostat. If I had to set it to eighty degrees to fight the greenhouse effect, I was going to.

It was fifty nine degrees in the dining room. And the thermostat was clearly switched on for heat.

Crap. Dead furnace.

I went down to the basement to stare at it, preparatory to calling our furnace guy, because staring at it always improves matters. I put a hand on the exhaust pipe. Cold. Obviously hadn't run in a long time. Damn.

And I looked down at the side of the furnace, where a simple light switch allows you to turn it on and off.

Switch off.

A simple light switch that is exactly at Katie's eye level.

And Gretchen had been doing laundry the previous evening -- Katie's bedding, which meant it was almost certain that Katie had followed her downstairs in pursuit of her favorite blanket, Badi.

Oh.

I turned the switch back on. A moment later, the furnace came on.

And eventually, there was heat.

*sigh*

Date: 2009-01-27 04:23 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] drzarron.livejournal.com
Time for a cover for the power switch, or a key switch.

Date: 2009-01-27 04:27 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] pheltzer.livejournal.com
Aren't toddlers fun...

Date: 2009-01-27 04:34 pm (UTC)
spiritdancer: (Default)
From: [personal profile] spiritdancer
My first thought was black electrical tape over the switch ...

Date: 2009-01-27 04:53 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jgaleckas.livejournal.com
Aren't you glad you saw that BEFORE you called the furnace repair guy?

"Guess what guys? I went on a $100 service call to turn on a switch!"

Date: 2009-01-27 04:57 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] bardling.livejournal.com
But isn't it SO much better than the furnace to be broken? :)

Date: 2009-01-27 05:30 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] johnridley.livejournal.com
Heh, 55 is what we normally set back to at night. It's nice to sleep in. On the weekend I often get up early enough that I'm about in it for a while before it kicks back up again.

Date: 2009-01-28 02:49 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kizoku42.livejournal.com
Yup, 55 at night, 65 during the day.

Date: 2009-01-27 05:48 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] smoooom.livejournal.com
Cheaper than a new furnace eh?

Date: 2009-01-27 07:56 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] wyld-dandelyon.livejournal.com
That's the quickest--and cheapest--furnace-fix you could have encountered. You should be counting your blessings!

Date: 2009-01-27 11:01 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] msminlr.livejournal.com
I foresee a strategic piece of duct tape in your future.

Date: 2009-01-28 06:41 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] janmagic.livejournal.com
let's see.... if you crawl you should be katies eye level. take some time to see what else she finds interesting..


i once did have the repair person out to fix my dryer for no heat when he noticed i had the dryer set to "air fluff" heat setting.

i think he let me off with a warning.

Date: 2009-01-28 07:40 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] purpleranger.livejournal.com
Now, is there any way to tell Katie that she should NOT be playing with this switch?

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