Our Furnace (Boiler) at Home Isn't Working and It's -8F Outside - Life Can Suck Sometimes!

 As all of you know (probably - LOL), I live in the Frozen Northlands - Minnesota, to be precise. Yesterday, our old boiler which provides heat to my house, decided it was on strike. *sigh* I contacted my furnace repair guy (yes, I have one of those who keeps my shop furnace functional) and he'll get back to me as soon as his schedule is set for today, to let me know when he'll be able to come out at take a look/fix my home furnace. I have zone heating in this house, but right now, it's qualifying as "frigid", "more frigid", and "ACK - Damn Cold". We have my small space heater in the computer room and that's where we're spending our time. 

It's cold outside (currently -8 F degrees), and since I have 
no functional heater inside, we're cold in here too. Nowhere 
close to as cold as outside, but not comfortable either. 

DH is the lucky guy who will get to stay home until after my furnace guy has been here. It's reasonable, because he's also the guy who'll get to write a check for the repair. Meanwhile, I'll head to the shop and try my best to be functional with about three hours of sleep. I got to sleep just fine, but the constant clicking on and off of the boiler trying to switch on awakened me in the very early hours and I moved to the computer room. There's no place to be prone in that room, but I sat in my chair, turned on my space heater, and at least I was cozy, if sleepless. I'll be a wreck today, but hopefully will return to a warm house after work tonight. 

It would be nice to just toss another log onto the 
fireplace, but since our flue needs a good cleaning 
before we light any fires (and I have a family of 
squirrels who have been living in the upstairs 
chimney for generations now), I don't light any fires 
any more. 

In some ways it's too bad we don't live in the days when we'd just toss another log onto the fire in the cave, in other ways it's damned nice to have electricity (even though Tesla's electrical ideas were WAY more efficient than Edison's). We all rely on electricity so much, and even though we often have fall backs available, they're far from convenient. The last time our heat died at the house was more than 20 years ago and I sat near the downstairs fireplace and fed it with wood. The flu needs a cleaning, however, and I don't want to roast the squirrels who nest in it every year, so a fire is really a last resort for me this time around. 

Time for a nice, hot, cup of tea. 

So, I'm signing off and going to make myself a nice, hot cup of tea. Have an excellent Monday and I'll be back tomorrow - hopefully with heat and a bit more than three hours of sleep. Slava Ukraini.