Sunday 27 April 2008

Irony


We are getting a new heater. Our wood combustion heater was shot and Ashley was not a fan, so we went all out and invested in a gas log fire - so deep is the investment that we have had to pay big dollars to get the mains gas connected to the house. Thursday, the guys came to put the new heater in, and with temperatures set to plummet over the weekend, it seemed to be fine timing.

However, the plan went to pot when the installers found they had a mismatched flue, and so, with regret, the guys informed me there were no spares of the correct flue in the warehouse and they would have to order another in.... which will take another week or so. Great!


Now, along with the rest of South Australia, I have been praying for rain and some cooler temperatures. It rained the whole day yesterday and all through the night; thunder rumbled overhead, hail rattled on the roof tiles above, and the gutters over-flowed in a steady stream on numerous occasions. The temperature dropped to 6.4 degrees.

Unfortunately the installers had also ripped out my old combustion heater, and it lay useless and most probably, snickering with vindictive pleasure, abandoned in the equally icy back shed. I think my house was the same temperature outside as it was in. And on top of all that, the household decided to go into vomit over-drive with the bedding and rugs being the target zone.


I got to bed some time around 2:30 am after cleaning up the majority of mess. Ice block-like I had washed two quilts and quilt covers, shorting a fuse in the process and screaming out loud at all the injustices of world as my daughter knocked over her dessert from the darkened kitchen table, which the dog gobbled up with lusty determination - there was no more, and her wailing (which I truly could have care less about, given the comedy of errors taking place at the same time while multiple phones decided to ring at once) could be heard across the valleys and nearby mountain ranges and was likely recorded on the Richter scale.


With Ashley away in Scotland, my brother came to my rescue with a new fuse he just happened to have lying around in his shed, and a flashlight, which I was also without.


Much later, I went off to bed in the hope of putting the disastrous night well and truly behind me, only to find, to my dismay, that one of the dogs, in their thunder storm induced anxious state, had gone out in sympathy with the kids and decided to vomit all over MY BED. So with that stripped, and all alternative bedding in use in the kids rooms while theirs was being cleaned, I resigned myself to a freezing night, huddled under a couple of throw rugs, alone and longing for the hot sun.

How was your night?




9 comments:

Jen at Semantically driven said...

Today will be a better day for you hopefully. I used my slow combustion wood heater for the first time this year over the weekend. So last night I had that going, I'd cooked shepherd's pie and we watched The Biggest Loser.

PJ said...

Yikes. Mine was much better than that!! Hope today is better. We're having a cold spell too -- After a few days of real Spring weather. We're back to near-winter and they're threatening snow for Monday or Tuesday. It's almost the end of APRIL!!! It's been a long winter.

Muse said...

OMG!

I guess you don't want to hear that it is still getting to 30 here!

Oh my, well... there is certainly never a dull moment in your life. I hope you get the heater soon!

Tracey said...

O.M.G.

The only consolation is that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger...

Things have got to get better after that night....

jeanie said...

Ouch to the added whammy of kids and dogs expelling waste!

The only bright side I can see is the joy when the darned heater is working!

Kathleen said...

Oh, you poor girl. How dare Ashley be gone when such trials are happening at home??!! The winter after my husband died, the furnace went out right before Christmas. I had to deal with it alone...a new experience for me with things mechanical and all that entails. Ended up needing a new one, which took a week to get. I finally fled the house when the ice started forming on the INSIDE of the windows. It was not my best Christmas.
Hope you're doing better by now!

The Brave said...

Well I should be thankful it isn't mid winter when this decided to happen. One more night of this now. The heater is being completed this afternoon and the gas meter is being put in tomorrow, so come Wednesday there shoud be relief.
Last night I slept in a polar fleece jacket and woollen jumper....ridiculous!

Lynda said...

I think you win... dog vomit on the bed always wins...

You just can't win with the weather in South Oz...

Unknown said...

I hope things are looking up. Hang in there.