My faithful computers, which live here without complaint when the temperature is over 80 degrees, have been in their little glory the past couple of days.
Right now, it’s a little over fifty in the house, due to a failure early yesterday of the circuit board that runs the furnace blower.
Around 4 AM, I woke to the acrid odor of burning machinery. It was coming through the vents, probably the result of overheated dust being exposed to temps as high as 200 degrees from the furnace.
A local plumbing company, which has a 24 hour answering service, sent a repair person over a little before 11 AM.
He found the problem but, unfortunately, with a furnace this age (at least 20 years old), the part wasn’t available locally.
So, I bought a carbon monoxide monitor, and have been heating the house with the gas stove – not optimal, because I can’t leave it on for more than an hour or so at a time, but certainly better than nothing.
Peter invited me to spend the night with them, and if the repair can’t be made this afternoon as planned, I might do that – the plumber said I shouldn’t leave the stove on overnight, and it was about 45 degrees when I got up this morning.
Luckily, I don’t mind the cold, and keep the house at a low temp anyway. The pipes didn’t freeze so far as I can tell, which was a big concern.
Still, this has reminded me of the things I’ve heard about hypothermia – slower reflexes, short-term memory loss, etc.
It’s supposed to “warm up” today, and hopefully the bad part will be replaced before the next arctic blast, which is predicted for later this week.
Such is life in New England in January, the coldest month.