things not to take for granted: warmth, quiet, & husbands

All day yesterday I kept getting chilled. The temps are dropping here, it was windy, and we live in a nearly 100 year old home. I just chalked it up to the "joys" of living in an older home, mumbled a few curse words and kept busy. When King got home from work, he commented on how chilly it was in the house. "Yeah, I have been freezing all day," I agreed. He wondered if there was something wrong with the heater... "Nah," I said, "I remember standing in front of the heat register yesterday warming my toes." On second thought, I didn't remember the sound of the heater coming on all day. "You might want to go check it out, though," I told him.

Grrr, just as he suspected, the heater was out. Problem: The igniter. Sadly, it was 8 p.m. and we had to spend the night huddled under tons of blankets with little space heaters set up in the main hallway.
"No biggie," I reassured my saintly husband, who at this point was quite frustrated, "we've tent-camped in weather nearly this cold." (I was trying to be optimistic, but my see-through attempts didn't help much.) After surviving the night, and taking the kids to school, our brave hero, King, headed to the heating & air parts store.

To add insult to injury, right after he left, the carbon monoxide detectors both went off. Shrill, deafening, unrelenting. I turned off the power hoping to give my ringing ears a break. No relief. They continued blaring the whole time he was gone (Praise God he was not out of town, because I'm thinking my attitude would have been When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Check Into a Marriott!!).

(Note to the FBI: it's an idea for a "detainee-friendly" torture device)

The story, of course, has a happy ending. King made it home within an hour, disconnected the alarms, and got the new part installed on the furnace quickly. I am now sitting in a relatively warm room with only the normal sounds of kids playing, and Curious George getting into trouble in the background.

I read this quote the other day on Little Jenny Wren's blogspot and it just seems very appropriate for occasions such as this: "Never be in a hurry; do everything quietly and in a calm spirit. Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever, even if your whole world seems upset." St. Francis de Sales