Too Much Excitement

Having fallen victim to a nasty virus, I found myself in need of some rest yesterday. I left the office a bit early and when I got home I immediately went to sleep.

After a couple of hours, I woke up and I felt chilled. The house just seemed cold to me.

I walked over to the thermostat and sure enough the temperature in the house was down a couple of degrees. No problem. Make a slight adjustment, take some more Buckley’s to stem the hacking cough, and life will be good.

Our home is heated through an in-floor hydronic radiant system. I should be feeling the heat radiating from the floor. Nothing. The floor was actually cool. That’s odd.

Well, let me turn on the fireplace and I will suffer the virus in front of an open fire and escape the chill. Only the gas fireplace would not light.

And then it dawned on me. We have no propane. At 8pm in the evening. In the middle of winter.

My wife was good enough to call the propane company and fortunately someone was still answering the phones. She asked my wife to check the propane tank and sure enough the tank read zero percent full.

The company was able to find a truck to come out and fill the tank however we needed to make sure that there was access. We have a 1,000 foot drive which had just been covered with roughly 10 or 15 cms of snow. Could we get our snow removal service out before the propane truck? More phone calls. And again success.

Then it dawned on me that not only did we have to worry about restoring heat to the house but I had to clear an old washer and dryer from the laundry room. Delivery of the new units was arranged for the next day but the old units had to be removed.

I thought the old set was a stackable washer and dryer but it was an all-in-one unit. 74 inches high and several hundred pounds. That thing was heavy and very cumbersome to move.

So in the midst of a heating crisis, a hacking cough and a pain-wracked body, I was having to heave this monster of a washer/dryer out into the garage .

The drive did get cleared. The propane tank did get filled. The house did get warmer. The washer/dryer did find its way out to the garage. But my reaction to all of these events was not positive. Whether it was the impact of the virus or the perceived stress of trying to multi-task this set of events or both, I was not happy and cheerful. And I was not happy that I was not happy and cheerful. If that makes sense.

I hate being sick.