December was a busy, festive month!
As you saw, we had heating problems. A serviceman reset the flame roll-out switch, saying it was tripped on a false alarm and should be safe and good now. It worked for another week, lasting through the deep freeze that blanketed the country. Then at 5pm on Christmas Eve the boiler stopped working again. I spent hours trying to get a technician, but no one could come out sooner than Monday after Christmas. I started a roaring fire and Ben rummaged the open stores for some space heaters.
We finally got the boiler repaired the next week. It turns out the other company didn’t really do anything to address the problem that tripped the switch. The boiler had to be taken apart, mineral build up cleaned out, and the expansion tank system replaced. Also he discovered the flue had rusty cracks, so it was replaced too. Also the regulator for the upstairs thermostat wasn’t working, so that was replaced too. After all that work we have a heating system that works better than it has in years. But it was quite stressful to have so many problems needing repair, and it was a terrible time for it all to break down.
We had also been planning a trip to Seattle to celebrate Ben’s birthday. There was a winter storm that Southwest Airlines completely failed to manage. Our flights were canceled and we had to reschedule our trip for later in January. I’m actually happy that we moved the trip, but it was another huge source of stress the week of Christmas, wondering if we were going to travel or not.
All that aside, Christmas was bright and jolly and fun for all. Andy was cat-sitting for Amanda. It was so nice to have him join us for Christmas dinner, as well as a couple other visits. We watched Glass Onion together and played a board game (after I solved the mystery of the locked garage and freed his car).
Leave a Reply