A cold, rude awakening

I woke up around 4 am with my head feeling suspiciously cold. I stayed in denial and then finally got up to get a drink of water, go to the bathroom, etc. I could hear the boiler running but when I felt the radiators, they were stone cold.

Houston, we have a problem. That problem means our boiler is not working. I went downstairs to check on the thermostat: 63 F and falling. Then I trekked to the basement: sure enough, there was an error code displayed. I tried resetting the system but the same arrow code kept flashing.

I went back under the covers and tried (and failed) to get back to sleep, composing emails in my head to our HVAC company. I had a few brief dreams when I managed to snooze a little, in which our boiler was miraculously fixed! Alas, it was even colder in our house when my alarm rang.

We all huddled under blankets as we got ready. I wrote the emails (not in my head!) and hoped for the best. I got a call back after I had dropped Ivy off at school on bike. I inquired about the warranty on our heat exchanger, the part that has been leaking for a while. Good news: it's still under warranty. Bad news: the boiler was never registered iwth the manufacturer and our original installer is no longer business (and who knows if he's still alive--he was old when he put it in almost 10 years ago). My next task: going through mountains of paperwork in my files to hunt down proof of installation. I managed to find something from the original installer with the install date and we think we actually can get the heat exchangee replaced under warranty!

The repair person fixed the other issue, which was a loose ignition cable. It took several hours for the house to come back to normal temperatures, so I spent the morning wearing my winter coat.

Anyway, I know it's a whole lot of talking about something so mundane that most of you have gone off to do something else already. But that's my life! And I am so grateful for a functioning boiler.

I worked on designing a new apparel logo for Breech Without Borders ("Globalize Breech Birth") that will be embroidered on t-shirts, aprons, hoodies, etc. It's the slogan of our upcoming fundraiser as we raise funds for global breech education. Here's my mockup on a navy blue background. It will be 3 colors of thread: aqua, white, and pale green.

I helped Ivy do her Christmas shopping for the family. One down, several more to go! I also worked on Ivy's water goddess. It's coming together nicely.