Tuesday, December 8, 2015

When Real Life Does Not Match your Plans


Do you ever make plans to have a nice, productive weekend, and then have nothing go according to  plan?  That is what happened to me this past weekend.  I was supposed to volunteer at the local food bank with my church small group Saturday morning,  work on Christmas projects on Saturday, and then attend church with a friend on Sunday.  Sunday afternoon, I would work on some more projects and maybe do some baking. 

Unfortunately none of that happened. 

On Friday night a friend asked me to come over to have dinner, and watch a movie on the Hallmark channel.  I went, and had a good time.  When I got home though, I noticed the temperature in the house seemed a lot cooler than when I left.   Our heat went out a couple of weeks ago as well, but that time it was an easy fix.  By the time I got home it was already almost midnight. I posted the Dare to Share party and went to bed. It was too late to call anyone. 

Saturday morning, I woke up not feeling well.  The temperature was even colder. When I tried to talk, I realized I had NO voice.   I knew something would have to be done with the heat ASAP. I texted the group leader, and said I was not going to be able to make it to the food bank.  I was feeling sick, and I needed to call someone to get our heat back on right away.   The kids were with their dad, and they were planning on coming home early afternoon.  He said he would come over and check to see if the pilot light went out again. Since I was not feeling well and bundled up from the cold, I fell asleep again.  I was woken up about an hour later when they arrived home.  It was not the pilot light this time, but something much bigger. He called the emergency maintenance number for me since I could not speak.  Minutes later, out of nowhere, they arrived with three space heaters.  They looked at the furnace, and said that a part was most likely going out since it has happened more than once.  They would come back and fix hopefully later that day, but it would probably be  on Sunday.  In the meantime we bundled up and sat in front of the heaters. I was not feeling well enough to do much crafting, and took a nap.  

Then to make things even more fun (said in a sarcastic tone!!),  the cable box in my room started acting up.  It re-booted at least 50 times. It would get close to being back online only to start rebooting again.  After a few hours, it went to the screen in the picture above.   Doing some online research, I found that was not a good sign. Pretty much every thread I found on the subject said that when the box goes to this screen, it is no longer working.  It was only 5 months old.  I left it on just in case it would download the software, but it never did.  Because it was the weekend, the service center to get a new box was closed. A lot of times I have the TV on for noise.  It drove me crazy with how quiet it was. I don't know how many times I reached for the remote to turn up the volume. 

Sunday morning I really wanted to go to church, but I was nervous to leave in case maintenance showed up while I was gone.  I did hear a little bit of noise outside early in the morning, but when I peeked out to utility door, no one was there.  We sat at home wrapped in blankets most of the day.  Finally around 3 pm, I got a phone call.  They were not going to come on Sunday after all, now they were going to come on MONDAY, and I did not have to be there.. Grrrrr! I could have gone to church without worry. I could have gone out and done some shopping. 

By that point pretty much most of my weekend was shot.  I did work a little bit on a project I am working on, and watched some Christmas specials on the living room TV.  Most of the time, my daughter complained about what I wanted to watch, she wanted to watch something else. 

Monday there were no elementary sub jobs available, and my daughter stayed home not feeling well. It was a good thing there was not a job, since I did not want my daughter home alone while they were working on the furnace   Around 10:30, I heard a lot of noise. I knew right away what it was. They were working on the furnace.. Yea!   We should be warm the rest of the winter now, they pretty much replaced the entire thing.  Three hours later we were warm again.   After picking up my son from school, I stopped by the cable service center and got my new box with no problems

Finally almost 72 hours after it all began,  I was finally warm, and watching TV again.  On the plus side from all of this, having forced rest is not necessarily a bad thing when you are not feeling well.  I took more than one nap, and a very quiet weekend.  I am starting to feel better, and can go back to the hustle and bustle of the season.  

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