Finding a Good for Every Bad

This has been quite a week. It started when I woke up in the wee hours of Tuesday morning and thought, "Hmmm, it's colder than it should be." I went to the basement to look at the furnace and found it not working, with a concerning error message.

That was bad. 

Fortunately, we have several gas fireplaces and a couple of minisplits in addition to the furnace, so I was able to keep parts of the house at a tolerable 60-62 degrees, despite the bitterly cold weather. That was good. 

As soon as I got the kids off to school, I called the company that installed and maintains the unit. Unless I considered it an "emergency" and was willing to pay a lot extra, they could set me up with an  appointment in a day or two. That was bad. But they also put me on their "priority list" in case they had a cancellation or a job ran shorter than expected. That was good. They called me later that afternoon to tell me the tech was on his way. That was even better. 

The tech did some troubleshooting and determined that the large fan assembly needed to be replaced, and they would need to order the part, which would take a couple of days. That was bad. But since the furnace was just over two years old, the part was covered under warranty, so I'd only need to pay for labor. That was good. 

I got up the next morning and tried to turn on the gas fireplace, but the pilot was out. That was bad. But thanks to Google and a not insignificant amount of determination, I got it working again. That was good. I also found an inexpensive space heater that was available for not just next day delivery, but delivery by 3pm. That was also good. 

Day #3 was a race to see whether the space heater or the heating technician would arrive first. The space heater arrived at about 11am. That was good. The technician arrived at around 2:30pm. That was also good. He installed the new fan, but when he turned the unit on, it gave a new error message, which made him realize that there was a computer board that was fried. That was bad. But he talked to his office, and they agreed to overnight the board, and he assured me that as soon as it arrived, he would drop whatever he was working on and come install it. That was good. He also assured me that they would figure out what had caused the problem and correct it so it wouldn't happen again. That was also good. But then I went to a meeting at school with my son and when we got home, we discovered that our canvas carport had managed to take off over the car and blow across the driveway to the middle of the island and smash itself against a tree, bending itself out of shape. That was bad. To make sure it didn't continue to blow around the neighborhood, my two kids and I - in the cold and dark - disconnected as much of the canvas as we could reach and tucked it underneath the frame, which we attempted to push as far off the driveway as possible. That was...kind of a mix of good and bad. 

Day #4 I waited eagerly to hear that the part had arrived, and finally in the middle of the afternoon, I got a message that the part had arrived and the technician was on his way! That was good. He got the part installed, then realized that it required an on/off switch that was not included with the part, so he had to go back to the office to get one. That was bad. But at least they had one. That was good. When the tech got back, he finished installing the part and started the furnace. That was good. Then he told me that his boss had been on the phone with the manufacturer and, even though we were technically about 6 weeks out of the 2-year replacement warranty, he sweet-talked them into replacing the entire boiler AND reimbursing a large part of the labor costs so it wouldn't cost me a fortune. It would arrive the beginning of next week and they expected to be able to install it by the end of the week. That was very, very good. 

And it looked like all would be well. My kids both got to take a long-awaited hot shower. The house began to warm up. We went to bed without our space heaters. That was good. But then I woke up at 2am feeling very cold again. So I went back down to the basement, where I saw not only the same error message as before, but a puddle of water under the unit. That was bad. Very, very bad. 

I'm not generally a swear-y person, but I will admit to using some colorful language. 

So I sent a text to and left a voice message with the company letting them know, and I am now at the point of hoping that a new boiler will solve the problem, or at least that they can figure out if there's a separate problem before the new unit also gets fried. That would be good. 

So right now, I am looking ahead to probably 5 or 6 more days before the new boiler arrives and can be installed. That is bad. But I have ways to be warm. I have multiple friends who have offered warm beds, hot showers, and listening ears. I have children who have been absolute troopers, uncomplaining and helpful. I have the ability to be home at a moment's notice whenever the boiler is ready to be installed. I have funds to pay for the repairs. I have food on the table, blankets on the beds, a car with a full tank of gas, a generous stock of coffee and cocoa, a full refrigerator, and plenty of warm clothing. And I have a God who clearly thinks very highly of my ability to manage things. That is very, very good. 

So it's been a bad week. But it's also been a good week. You simply have to remember to notice the good.