The Fortress of Solitude

First off no one go into shock by seeing two posts in less than a week.

So I call my house the Fortress of Solitude (for those not getting the reference check out Wikipedia) and this week it was very close to resembling the actual place as it has been depicted.

Thursday morning I woke and was going to wash my face before heading off to the gym and work. After waiting for a few minutes for the water to warm up and getting nothing but ice cold water I ran down to the basement to check the oil tank which turned out to be low…very low. So after I got to work I called the heating oil place and told them I needed the tank filled up and the guy said he would send someone out that afternoon to do it, so I figured that I had taken care of the problem and would not have to worry about it while in Cincinnati for an extended weekend. When I got home Monday evening I hardly noticed the temperature in the house mainly because I was so tired from traveling, so I just hopped in bed and turned the electric blanket on and went to sleep. When I woke up Tuesday morning it was bloody COLD. My first thought was to check the pipes both upstairs and downstairs to see if they had running water. After seeing that both were still working I decided I would get home early that evening and tell the landlord who lives next door. Well when I pulled into the driveway no one was home so I went inside and was going to wait for her to get home. My first inclination that something was wrong was that the bowls in the sink were frozen solid and I tried the faucet and nothing happened and was like Oh Crap (that’s the PG version). So I ran upstairs and checked the bathroom (both faucet and tub still had running water) and went back downstairs and that’s when I first noticed I couldn’t feel my hands and could see my breath. After spending a good hour with the heat gun pointed under the sink at the pipes and in the basement trying to find the frozen pipe I gave up and left a note on the landlord’s door that the furnace was not working and that I had frozen pipes in the kitchen. I then headed to bed which was just like a winter camping trip (with an electric blanket) and got up in the morning and found the note from the landlord saying she would check it out and that the fuel line might just need to be bled out on the heating oil tank. So I went to the gym and my training (ugh) and called my landlord to see what she was able to determine about the furnace. She said that she had checked it out , bled the line which did not work and called the maintenance people to come and look at the tank. She said it could be dirt in the line or might have to replace the whole thing since it was old and there when she bought the house. So I am sitting in training thinking I am going to be able to make snow angels in the living room before going to bed (she did offer me a spare bedroom on her side of the house if it was a major problem).

She did call about 5:30 to let me know that the heat was back on and the guy was finishing up repairing the pipe that busted so I had to cancel the staircase bobsled competition and the hockey game I had planned for that evening.

When I got home last night it was a comfortable temperature and I could feel my fingers.

The house has gone back to being the Fortress of Solitude sans cold and ice.

-c