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Tuesday, January 29, 2019

Recovery

I guess we all know the big one is coming. The Polar Vortex. The cold.  It began here last night with a lot of wind. I lay in bed  realizing there probably is nowhere in anyone's mobile home to put a bed that is not on an outside wall.

So, I slept fitfully, listening to the wind and the driven rain pick at the siding and blow loose stuff around. Not more than small branches and dirt, but stuff definitely was on the move.

My heating system has come up for discussion in the past. It is a heat exchanger, used for heat in winter and cool in summer. 

My sister was here the other day, and while the "furnace" was running, she put her hand down over the nearby grill and said "That really is cool air!" Take that, universe. My sister stuck her hand in my heat, and it is cold.

I digress. I was sleeping fitfully, hearing the wind pick at my siding, when suddenly the heat exchanger made a grinding, banging noise. It would not stop. I lay in bed, rueing it was one in the morning, Sunday morning, and soon I would be out of heat and hard pressed to get maintenance here on Sunday.

But it quit, and I fell asleep for an hour, to be waked again by the horrible noise. I knew I could change the furnace over to "emergency" and burn dollar bills for heat, and I got up to do so. 

In the middle of the kitchen, I encountered Toby the Cat, on full alert, in the event the horrible banging, grinding noise came at him through the back door. He apparently intended to size it up, face to face, before he selected flight or fight.

I stopped to pat his brave head, and in the midst of the next rush of grinding and banging, I realized it was the outside storm door, left unlatched and now swinging wildly in the wind. Pulling it tight was not easy; it was a couple of tugs to get the latch secured.

The next evening I asked Laura if the noise had waked her. Yes it had, and what was it. "The storm door someone left unlatched last night."

"Yeah, I thought I didn't hear it click."

Sigh.

Stay warm. Bring in the pets. Feed the birds.




33 comments:

  1. Aaaarrrrrgh! Did you roll your eyes? You were entitled to :)

    Good luck in the storm. I'm glad your heat exchanger was not the problem. But then, it's already a problem if it's blowing cool air. Around here, we are advised to have an auxiliary source of heat for electrical storage units (they store electricity during off hours for use during peak hours, and have the same problem you find with your heat exchanger). Have you looked at little space heaters? They might do the trick. Stay warm and safe.

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    1. We can use the heat exchanger, or put on the electric furnace. It makes wonderful warm air, but it's like burning dollar bills, it's so expensive. However, it's supposed to be so cold the next couple of days that I imagine the heat exchangers will simply default to the electric furnaces. It happened once before, in my three winters here.

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  2. Toby the Defender. :)

    Do take care!

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  3. The news shows weather reports and it is scary. Wear layers, curl up with a warm Toby.

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  4. I have to admit that I am frightened for you. This is absolutely unbelievable. But I must say that your cat is a noble-looking beast.

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  5. I'm glad to hear that your grinding issue was solvable.

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  6. It may not have been easy to fix but at least your dollars were not eaten.

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  7. As frustrating as it was, I am sure that you were relieved that it wasn’t a $$$ fix on your heater. Toby is a brave cat, mine hide under the bed during wind storms.

    We got some of that storm today and tonight and tomorrow, the horrible temps will be here. There is less than two months till spring.

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  8. Hooray for Toby.
    Echoing jenny_o on the eye rolling, but so glad that it could be fixed without calling in elusive maintenance.
    Stay warm, stay safe.
    And megathanks. My golden towels arrived today and are simply beautiful.

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  9. A storm door beats the heck out of a new furnace! The temps here are ridiculous and I don't even understand how we can get this much snow when it's this cold. I am pouring mason jars full of bird seed on the snow. I'm getting many, many birds. Poor little things. -Jenn

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  10. I feel for you guys. Cold just gets to your bones and you just can't get warm no matter what you do. Hoping lots of people in your area are taking your advice for staying warm, bringing in the pets, and feeding the birds. And may it warm up so very fast!

    betty

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  11. Wow, what a night you had! Stay as warm as you can!

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  12. "I thought I didn't hear it click" and didn't check it right away??? Shame on you Laura.
    I'm glad you have Toby to protect you. Lola would have been under the bed quick as a flash.

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  13. Your Toby has the heart of a lion, just like his human.
    Be safe.

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  14. I hope you're keeping warm in the cold snap. Temperatures in the UK are also dropping below freezing. I'm glad the apparent furnace failure turned out to be a false alarm!

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  15. Did Laura get the message do you think?

    LX

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  16. Hari Om
    Hope you've stocked up the cupboards... it's hitting our news this morning and being compared to the inch of snow some of us got overnight and the widespread frost which is apparently disrupting travel and causing folk not to be able to attend work... this says to me that the UK is desparate to be snowbombed. tsk... Purrrrrssss Toby, thank goodness you were en garde for invaders! YAM xx

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  17. I hear you are having record-breaking weather.

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  18. We've been spared for the most part, it was only 27F this morning.

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  19. Our first home was a mobile and it did rattle in the wind for sure.

    Our heat exchanger blows cold air somewhere in its cycle too. Seems counterproductive but that’s how it works. I’ll never understand it!

    Stay warm!

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  20. And Trump thinks your weather is proof that global warming is a myth. Or, worse, hoax.

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  21. It's sort of typical, eh?
    It's darn cold here, but it's not particularly windy as of this moment.

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  22. I would be unhappy if my heater blew out cold air. well, snuggle up and stay warm. this one passed us by more or less.

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  23. Thinking of you folks suffering through this polar vortex. It is COLD here, but we are holding up just fine with both wood burners going. It's "only" -20.

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  24. Bravo Joanne, and Brave Toby. Another storm is wafting it's way through here tomorrow.

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  25. I'm in your corner Joanne. Hot water bottles and hot drinks. Heat the body from the inside.

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  26. Reading your blog makes me realize why I live in Hawaii. No furnace and no heat. If the temperature dips below 70 we put another blanket on our bed. The high today will be in the high 70s and the overnight low was in the mid 60s.

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  27. When it rains it pours... Or get really cold in the upper Midwest...:(

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  28. Stay warm we're nowhere near as cold as you and I'm cold.

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  29. I hope you're holding up okay and weathering the storm. I can't imagine cold like you're having. Please take care.

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  30. The quilt is looking wonderful. What a fantastic skill to learn at such a young age and what great way to spend some unexpected down time. I hope you are both doing well and that the weather is warming. I'm currently in Kenya where it is very hot and dry and it's hard for me to fathom how could it's been elsewhere. Apparently where I live in Canada the weather has been super warm and the flowers are blooming. Rather early I might add as it is winter!

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  31. Hope it's warming up for you. It's warmed up here overnight. Hope it lasts awhile. I'm relieved for you that it was just the storm door and not your heating system.

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