Hubby caved in. It was not the sight of self, Dear Wifey, shivering on the couch with piles of blankets tucked around her, but the sight of Bella, our older dog, trembling on her doggy cushions, that persuaded him to allow self to call a furnace specialist to restore heat to our humble abode.
So, this morning, bright and early, self called her “go-to” person for all handyman-type questions, friend Sandy, who recently completed a $100,000 re-model of her Menlo Park home. Sandy recommended Guy Plumbing. Self called over there, and was told that Guy doesn’t “do” floor furnaces. There was one company, only one, that still worked on those antiquated machines, and that turned out to be Redwood Plumbing, right in self’s neck of the woods.
So self called over to Redwood Plumbing, and was told that there had been quite a rash of service calls in the last few days; the specialists were up to their gills in work, and no one would be able to come out until Wednesday morning. Self made the appointment, and as she was getting ready to spell her last name, the saleswoman said she could look and see if self had ever made a previous service call, and that would save self the bother of spelling her name.
“I’m pretty sure we’re not in your records,” self told the saleswoman.
“Oh, well, just let me check,” the woman said. “Sometimes people forget.”
“No, I am very sure we’ve never called for repairs,” self said.
The woman was amazed. “What, you have a superman-type furnace? In all these years, you’ve never needed a repair?”
“Nope, never,” self replied.
“Well, I’ll be,” the woman said. “That’s amazing.”
Which it truly is, dear blog readers. Self’s tiny cottage was built in 1939. The furnace is still the original one that was installed at that time. And in spite of oodles and oodles of dog hair falling through the grate and settling in a fine rain over the flues and pipes, the furnace has manfully poured out heat, for almost half the year, from the time hubby and self bought the house, in 1992, until now.
Poor old thing. Must be sooo tired.
The other thing that is making self feel happy today? She got a “nice” rejection in the mail, with three sentences hand-written. And “The Day the Earth Stood Still” opened huge last weekend, so self has yet another movie to see over the holidays.
Stay tuned, dear blog readers, stay tuned.
