When I came home from work on Thursday night I walked through the door and bellowed (to nobody), “What in the long sleeved shit?! Why is it so cold in here??” I walked straight to the thermostat and gave it a little extra juice. Then I went to bed an hour or so later, without thinking any more about it. But when I got up the next morning Toney told me the furnace wasn’t working at all. Ugh! What if it’s dead? Visions of a $3000 replacement bill started dancing in my head.
But it’s even worse than that. We can’t even get anybody to come out and look at it. Toney called our normal place and they said “maybe Monday or Tuesday.” Then on Monday it became “maybe Wednesday.” It’s freaking cold in here! So, we called other places and it was an even longer wait. One guy said the end of next week “if all goes well.” That’s no good.
So, we went through the weekend with no heat. Toney and I got into a mini-argument about buying a space heater, but it was eventually purchased. It helps in the living room, but the bedrooms are like sleeping out in the yard. It’s crazy. We’re stacking blankets like Little House on the Prairie. And, fueled by the low temps predicted for the next couple of nights, I’m now worried about our pipes freezing.
And nobody will even come out to take a look at what might be causing the problem. We’re in a frosty-ass holding pattern. It’s bullshit. I feel like checking into the Hilton in Scranton and just letting the chips fall where they may.
What’s the longest you’ve gone without heat or electricity or some other vital utility? I’m sure some of you who live in hurricane or earthquake areas have some REAL horror stories to tell. This is only Day Four for us, but it’s taking its toll. It feels like a tomb in here. And Toney has all the blinds down, believing it will help, which only makes it sadder and more demoralizing. The gloom is taking me down!
What do you have on this subject? Tell us about it in the comments, won’t you?
And I’ll be back soon. Hopefully in a warm and toasty state.
Have a great day, my friends.
UPDATE: We now have heat again. A person came out today and was here for more than seven hours. He said we had “stacked” problems, meaning more than one. It wasn’t a cheap fix, but I don’t have any suspicions he was scamming us in any way. Something called an aquastat was the main culprit. Who the hell knows? I’d never heard that word before in my life. All I know is… it’s warm and toasty in here again. Pass the beer nuts.
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We just had a hurricane and were without power for 3 days or so. The weather was beautiful after the hurricane so I feel fortunate. Sorry you are having such a shit time getting someone to service your heater. Hang in there man!
6 days without power after a tornado outbreak the end of April 2011.
We bought a generator after 3 days just to run the refrigerator and freezer so we didn’t lose about 50lbs of wild game.
We made do the best we could…used a battery operated fan in the bedroom to keep cool at night, cooked all our meals using cast iron skillets on the grill, and took cold showers since our water heater wasn’t gas.
Thankfully it was just us two and the dog, we didn’t have kids to worry about.
I was in Alabama at the time. They were saying that power could be off for weeks. You couldn’t find gas. Walmart in south Huntsville was giving away frozen food. My wife and 3 small kids lasted the first night but that was it. We drove to North Carolina to see one of my friends race and stayed in a hotel there for 5 days. I bought batteries and oil lamps in NC and headed home. As I was putting the kids to bed the power came back on.
After no electricity for 4 days, which in that house also meant no water, we just left. The power came back after 7 days if I remember right. It was a while ago.
Current house has mains water (learned that lesson) and one of our neighbors is a big cheese at PECO. When the power does go out it miraculously comes back VERY fast. I’ve never used the generator I bought after the aforementioned week long outage.
I assume you done the most obvious thing, i.e. call your Dad and have him walk you through diagnosing a furnace?
After Hurricane Fran in 1996 we didn’t have power for 7 days in humid September mugginess.
Being without power is one of those things I know I’ve experienced but choose to not remember the details of. I think the longest was about 4 days after a wicked Nor-Easter up in CT, as I recall the family room fireplace coming in handy and being thankful for a gas stove. Our HVAC is an all-in-one pack, so we’d truly be SOL if something goes sideways deep within its monstrous innards.
That reminds me that I need to replace the batteries in my thermostat…
9 days after a derecho in 2013. I have own/operate a tree service. Temps in the high 90’s/ low 100’s for weeks. Working in the heat all day and come home to no power and no water. Good times. NOT
December 23rd…2002. Ice storm when living in Boone, NC. It was common for the power to go out. We also just had a foot of snow. December 25. Still no power. My son opened his presents, and was so happy he got his new Nintendo. Then he looked at me like he just opened a steaming turd. “When the electricity going to be back?” I don’t know, I said. Next day, it was repaired. But in February, when the Daytona 500 was coming on tv, those mutherfuckers repaired that shit within 5 hours, after another similar ice storm. You don’t take away racin’ from those NC freaks!
I feel very fortunate. My longest power outage was after the DC derecho in 2012, when my power was out for 14 hours. Even with the AC out, I could at least still cook [i.e. make coffee] by lighting the stove burners with a match. And the grill, as noted above. And at least it was on a Friday.
Aquastat? Is that like a johnson rod in a car?
Aquastat my friend don’t you start away uneasy
You poor old sod, you see it’s only me
jtb
Back in the mid nineties I lived about 2 1/2 miles up on an unmaintained dirt road at the 4000′ level in Mariposa County, Ca. One weekend we had a couple feet of snow, which managed to snap off the last three poles (including the transformer pole) on the line to the house. As I was the last customer on the line, It took PG&E about 3 weeks to get power back up to the house. I had a propane cook stove and water heater, 5000 gallon water tank on a small hill higher than the house (so gravity took over for the pump to the pressure tank) and a wood stove (the only heat in any event). So I just had to light the oil lamps when I came home from work. The first trip out after the snow took about 8 hours to go the 2 1/2 miles to the pavement, what with having to have tire chains on the 4 wheel drive pickup and stop to cut up and move trees every hundred yards or so. After the first trip out, it was back to work like everything was pretty much normal.
Longest power outage was the 2012 Derecho seven days almost exactly. That was summer and no fun. I’m better prepared for winter. I have natural gas and a 30,00 btu/hr wall heater no AC required.
I want to add a natural gas generator soon.
There’s talk in parts of the country about banning new natural gas hookups, I won’t be moving there anytime soon.
A good portion of my local news is about abandoned homes catching fire from the homeless trying to keep warm. We all will do what it takes to survive given limited options.
I think the longest was hurricane Sandy a good 7-8 days. We had a generator but gas prices were soaring back then. I think we dumped about $600 worth just to keep the place half running. We now have a new generator that kicks in 10 seconds after the power goes out and I’m very grateful for that little marvel.
Had to get a covid test today and it took almost 5 hours. I get th err results maybe on Friday. Digits crossed I dodged a bullet on this one.
madz,
I had a 5 hour test in the 90s and I’m STILL walking funny. Hope yours was better. Results?
take care,
John
JTB we dodged a bullet. Beloved and I were negative as was the rest of the office with the exception of the one lady who initially had it. Her whole family.got it. I wish them the best.
We plan to get tested again after Thanksgiving. It’s exploding here just like everywhere else.
Stay safe and strong my friends.
Two days for me. But it was the middle of summer in Fort Worth and MISERABLE. We bailed and went to a hotel. I still get pissed thinking about it. This was years ago.
I understand what a pain in the ass being without power or cable TV or central heating or cooling is; everybody’s been there. One thing we can do to put those calamities in perspective is to appreciate our luxury when our grids and gizmos are working. I’m old enough to be connected to the generation that grew up without most of those amenities. My late father, who was born 103 years ago grew up in a two bedroom house with three siblings. I’ve spent a lot of time there (it’s long gone now). It had power, but no water heater, no central heating, no indoor plumbing and, of course, no TV or radio. Somehow my grandmother got four kids up and off to school every morning and got them bathed with water heated on a wood stove every Saturday night.
Yeah, poverty stories are annoying, but large numbers of that generation grew up in those conditions.
Until a decade ago, I spent two non-contiguous weeks a year at a family cabin on a wilderness lake. No electricity, water heater or lights. Cooking on a wood stove (which seems to take about seven hours to get hot enough to cook anything) and running water only occasionally (depending on snow conditions): otherwise it was a trip down to the lake with buckets. And certainly no indoor plumbing. I returned home after each trip with a genuine appreciation of turning up the thermostat and accessing the Web and even turning on the TV.
Our power/telephony/communications infrastructure/grids are WAY more fragile than we think. Sometime in the next decade large parts of North America will lose one or more of those delivery grids for an extended period: you heard it here last. Batteries, portable radios, fireplaces and barbecues are your friends. Keep them well-maintained. And thank the accident of the timing of your birth for not having to fight off snakes and spiders while defending your territory in the outhouse.
Old man out.
John
I hear ya in re fragility. I remember the blackout of ’65, and there is so much more “grid” these days.
My dad was almost 10 years junior to your dad, but nonetheless he used to tell about when he was a kid and they got running water installed in the house. No more carrying water from the well! And they were neither desperately poor nor deep in the backwoods.
Dad’s parents only got a TV in their house in the 1970s, and that was only because one of their kids – my uncle – bought it for them so he could watch the ballgame while he was visiting.
When I was a kid in the 60s we would trek down to Mississippi every summer to see family. Outhouse, no AC(!), sulfer-infused well water….not what a Jersey kid was accustomed to. And yeah, we are now so spoiled by technology and conveniences that we take for granted that everyone gets so indignant the minute we have any interruption in our “necessities”. JTB, totally agree that the extended deprivation of said services is inevitable.
Mike
In 1967, my parents and I lived in Cabin Creek, West Virginia, before moving to the resort town of Dunbar. We lived in a basement of a business. Besides the memory of my pet duck, Petey, disappearing at Thanksgiving, I remember no heat when it was cold….Yeah, that started the ball rolling, I am guessing, to being a 59 year old, mentally ill, fucked up 59 year old, who sees images on flooring that spells words, or looks like dead celebrities. I miss Petey. I choose to blame this.
AWG, my brother, I’m sorry for your pain, but your comment is so close to poetry it makes me nervous. If Lawrence Ferlinghetti followed this blog I’m pretty sure he’d agree. Sorry to hear about the duck.
John
Thank you, John!
Really, i just read up on this dude. He is 101 years old? Too cool!
Ferlinghetti is one of my favorites. He published a thin volume of something approaching beat poetry in 1958 called “A Coney Island of the Mind”. I bought a copy in the mid-60s, and I still have that ragged copy. Most of the poems from that book are now available on the web. Volumes of poetry sell ten thousand copies, or maybe 75,000 if you’re Robert Frost or Rod McKuen (to name two poets of differing skills). This little book of beat poetry has sold over a million copies in something like nine languages. It’s beautiful and funny and a little outrageous. Try “Christ Climbed Down” or “I Am Waiting”. They’re short and fun. Every time I’m in San Francisco I stop by his bookstore. His office is upstairs, but I haven’t been able to shake his hand yet. Hell, I might kick off before he does. I best head south.
John
I am waiting was great.christ climbed down gave me a tom waits kida feel. Thank you for turning me onto this. My ex girlfriend died this morning, and I needed this pick me up, along with several cool beverages to get me on my feet again. And…she would have loved this stuff.
I’m very sorry for your loss. Words don’t help, but that’s all we have.
John
Angry, very sorry to hear about your loss..Hugs to you.
AWG, so sorry for your loss. Don’t know if, how or why it would help to know others have shared your pain but in case it does, my sympathies.
Mike
And….I get the call at 1 am today. Former girlfriend between marriages died in a car accident last night. Her sister called me. This shit sucks. Word to the wise…don’t be my girlfriend.
Sitting here with my buddy who works HVAC as his day gig. He says “Oh yea, an Aquastat …that’s a pain in the ass.” Apparently, its between things and hard to get to.
Yo Jeff,
How about one comment per person? Otherwise, it appears that that person (guess who), is once again monopolizing the comments section.
Hahahahahaha! Oh wait…You’re serious?
WOW, the preconceived prejudices are flowing like a fire hydrant. Can’t think of one valid reason for that complaint.
Years ago I took a job in a different city and stayed in my grandparents old house that had been abandoned once they got put in an old folk’s home. Anyways, it was February and I couldn’t get the heat or the hot water turned on for a week. I was lucky I even managed to get the electricity to work. It was an empty house too so I was sleeping on the floor in a sleeping bag lol
In retrospect it was pretty stupid
When hurricane (superstorm???seriously???) Sandy hit NJ we were vacationing in Myrtle Beach. Were supposed to get home on the Monday that it hit, but needless to say that flight and the next two days were cancelled. Got home Thursday night round midnight and were without electricity until noon the next day. Talk about stepping in caca…
One more ex dies from car crash…can’t take much more. Just got the news at 1 am.
AWG, so sorry for your losses.
Oh AWG – wow, I’m very sorry for you! You truly have my sympathies. Please, hang in there. I know it sounds empty and odd hearing that from a virtual stranger on a blog, but there are friends on here who care about you. Take care. xxx Madeleine
Sat out the first round of condolences, but I’m compelled to send you a virtual hug now. So wish I had the words to ease your pain. Peace and love to you; Godspeed to the ladies.
AWG, my brother, I’m so sorry for this shitstorm. Talk with people you trust; let them know how you feel. If you can do it, get a referral to a counselor who has experience with grief and loss; many charge on a sliding scale. If it helps, post your grief out here. Again, I’m so very sorry for these losses.
John
Thanks John. I just repied to a post again. That is where my head is right now.Sunday, my son would have been 24. I feel like sleeping for the rest of the week and turning my phone off. This shit is unbelievable.
Stay strong my friend.
I know this has become an inappropriate place for obits and most everything else, but why not one for the road?
Diego Maradona rose from the shantytowns of Buenos Aires to become the golden boy of football, conquering the world in 1986 with a little help from God and 65 inches of football magic. He became a symbol for the indigenous peoples of South America: the highly imperfect successor to Pele in the pantheon of world football. He drank too much and lord knows what else he ingested, but on the pitch he was the embodiment of — that word again — magic, regularly dribbling through five, six, seven defenders to score goal after goal, and repeatedly making perfect passes. He leaves a complicated legacy, but his journey to glory and back created opportunities for other athletes of mixed heritage. On the field, where he was pure and wild match after match, he created magic.
John
Diego was the shit! Just doing amazing things that no one else could do. I used to despise futball, till i started watching. This guy gave it all..