Perpetual Ruminations

Losing my Insanity

I know, I have not been very active here for a few days, mayhaps even about a week, or at least about seven days. I can explain.

The weekend was chaos! Our oldest daughter/granddaughter turned 18 on Sunday. There was a lot of fuss and stuff over the weekend for her, of course. Add to that, her boyfriend was over, and that was even more hubbub for me to deal with. Don't get me wrong, he seems pretty nice and I like him just fine, but with Max, the birthday stuff, and a guest over, it was a bit more to deal with.

Our youngest also had a birthday party to attend on Saturday, with a sleepover. So, it was trying to get her to clean up her room, get her to the party, and more mumble-jumble.

Our landlord also stopped by on Saturday to let us know that we would be getting the front apartment on March first now instead of February first. He refunded what we had paid for the difference and apologized that Dingbat didn't get moved when she was supposed to.

All in all, it made for a hectic weekend, lots of running around, busy, and not much time to get online. Then, Monday arrived.

I was excited, kids back in school, wife at work, and just me and Max to enjoy peace and quiet and get caught up in here. At least, that was the plan.  Those plans got flushed right down the crapper as soon as my phone went off.

We've been having trouble with the boiler heat all winter, but with a bit of tinkering and jumping past a sensor, it's running and working fine. However, Monday the people came out to fix it right and replace the defective part. They arrived at about ten and didn't leave until after five. Nothing went right for them, they couldn't get the old sensor to come off without tearing up the pipe it's attached to, the bleeder valve didn't fit, and so on.

A little past noon, they had done as much as possible with it, with the sensor still bypassed, the old bleeder back on, and not much accomplished. They closed it up, turned on the power, pushed the button, and...

You likely guessed it, no heat. The boiler is now defunct completely, and by the time they left, it was determined that the circuit board, much like a motherboard in a computer, had fried up as crispy as over-cooked bacon. They removed it and took it with them, with hopes of having it fixed by Tuesday.

They did bring us some electric heaters. But since we did not get the keys for the front, we had no way to put any on that side. Luckily, the temperature was staying above freezing.

Tuesday they put the repairs board back in first thing in the morning. They turned on the power and pushed the button. Nothing. The ignitor was not igniting. He again removed the board and checked the fuses; one had blown. He changed this and turned the power back on, the fuse blew again. It seems there is something shorting out in the board, so one was ordered with overnight delivery.

The plan was to have it by Wednesday afternoon and put it in right away and get us some heat. But, Tuesday it began with rain, then freezing rain, and by eleven that night, we had blizzard conditions. The temperature also started to drop, but we did get keys to the front and set up heaters over there, as well as the ones we have here.

It has not gotten over ten degrees yesterday or today, and has dropped below zero at night, and will again tonight. The delivery was delayed by the storm, the landlord is in Texas (he drives truck) and we are trying to keep warm with space heaters as we run up a horrible electric bill. Meanwhile, we have a crew of three people trying daily to get this boiler up and running.

It's been a crazy weekend, a crazy week, and some crazy weather. It's almost enough to drive me sane!