Heat, Humility, and Hot Water

Today, Gentle Readers, I have a little tale for you. And it's even a tale with a lesson...

The Month of No Heating in October went surprisingly well. I did have two detours, when we had guests and I turned up heat for their comfort, but all in all, I think we saved a bunch of money and we didn't suffer for it.

Moving forward to yesterday morning, the day after Halloween, I woke up MORE than ready to wash the hairspray from my own hair and to wash the hairspray and dirt off the kids. I hopped in the shower but it never got more than tepid. Hmmm. All right for me, but not for kids' baths. Left the house for errands, returned, and tried the taps again, and this time the water was downright chilly. I thought the water heater was broken, but then realized that it was everything in the house, when I turned the thermostat up to check. Furnace was ticking along but no heat was coming through.

I'll pause here to ask you, Gentle Reader, what would you do in this situation? If you guessed: call the landlord and arrange for a furnace/plumber guy ASAP, then you'd be quite sensible. I commend you.

If you were not so sensible...in fact if your name were Susie and you were the owner of this blog, you would freak out at the fact that you couldn't fix this problem yourself, and call your husband who's far, far away for work and have some nice hysterics because you don't WANT to call the landlord on the weekend. [You would not be reasonable and consider that the need for heat and hot water in a household with small children trumps Landlord Convenience.]

Yep, that's what I did. I totally freaked out at the thought of having to call for help. Once David talked me off the ledge, I did call and got no answer. Aaaaack!! Then I started calling people from church, in hopes one of the members could maybe take a look. Then I called the landlord back, just in idle hope, and reached his daughter. He and his wife were away this weekend, but Wonderful Daughter took the info, called them, and was at my door 30 minutes later to tell me a plumber was on the way.

Wonderful Plumber came, diagnosed the problem (a broken pump thingie that takes the hot water from the boiler and pushes it through the house), and replaced the part. Just like that. Well, 90 minutes of just like that.

So what was so difficult about that? Nothing, in actual fact. Once I got past my fear and freakout about asking for help, I got it with no questions asked. I find it more than ironic that one of my volunteer roles is as a Key Spouse. In that job, I am there for people who need help, whether it's to provide the help myself, or show them where to look. However, when it comes to asking for help myself, I am hopeless.

Yesterday, I learned that asking for help feels OK. Remembering that I am not supposed to be able to deal with everything might be a wise thing, too. Our mom raised us to rely on ourselves, as much as possible, but I keep forgetting the "as much as possible" part.

Ahh, yes, today's blog recommendation - how about Kris, The Knitting Wannabe? She's no wannabe, and her online yarn shop rocks, too. Most of all, I love reading the day to day life stuff. Today's post (linked above) is about thankfulness, and that's just what I was needing to see, myself.