Thankful Thursday | heating issues

You know how yesterday I was talking about the Guardian article on the topic of joy? And how one of the challenges was to take a tough circumstance and find the good in it?

Well, my oil-fueled boiler that heats my house has been out of commission this week (a week that has delivered some of the coldest weather we’ve had in a long time!)

It’s a long story that is not quite over (and it includes the fire department being called because of a semi-explosion in the boiler!), but the Cliff’s notes version is that the boiler is still not entirely fixed (maybe by the end of the day tomorrow).

(Also, spoiler: Zoe and the cats and I are all fine.)

Anyway…I’m gonna find the good in a not-that-fantastic situation.

This week, I am thankful:

for kind people who let us borrow space heaters

I already had one from my Buy Nothing group, but I also got to borrow one from my landlord and two from neighbors.

The four of those heaters have kept us from freezing over this last week and I am thankful!

that I am not responsible for home repair bills

While I was in Hawaii a branch fell onto my roof and poked a hole.

And then there’s been these big problems with the boiler this week.

All of that has reminded me to be thankful that my housing costs are pretty fixed as a renter. Yay!

for good neighbors

I wasn’t home the second time the smoke alarms went off, but my dear neighbors helped Zoe while I rushed home.

for some warmer weather

We are officially out of the deep freeze that’s been here since my return from Hawaii. Tomorrow it’s gonna be almost 65! We barely even need a functioning heating system on a day like that.

that my house smells fine now

After the second major smoke issue, my house smelled terrible, even after the fire department did their thing (and don’t worry, they checked for carbon monoxide).

But happily, after some airing out, some odor-absorbing products, and a very thorough cleaning from top to bottom, it smells regular in here again. Whew.

that I started the semester with a VERY clean house

I did not intend to spend the entire day before the first day of school cleaning my house.

But the upside is that at least I’m starting semester two with a super duper clean and tidy house.

that our issue provided training for the firefighters

Even though our heater smoke problem didn’t even involve an actual fire, there ended up being something like six trucks here.

 

As it turns out, they were having the young firefighters come in and see this problem….there aren’t a lot of houses with old boilers like mine, and they wanted to give everyone a chance to see how to deal with a situation like this.

So, hey, at least these firefighters got to learn something new!

that I don’t mind the cold very much

I would have had a WAY harder time making it for a week with a broken A/C unit. I’m pretty sure a crabby attitude would have surfaced around day two. Ha.

that we got an electric water heater last year

Last winter, my landlords switched our hot water from an oil-powered boiler to an electric water heater, and boy was I thankful for that this week. Otherwise, we’d have been without hot water for this whole week.

that we had power

Losing power in the cold is terrible. I hate that so, so much.

Losing central heat is not great, but at least if you have power, you can run space heaters, you can take hot showers, you can bake things in the oven, and you have lights/internet, etc.

Power made this way more tolerable!

for the fun of returning to nursing school

I have been so happy this week to go back and see all my school friends. My friend Brittany was like, “I missed you guys so much!” and I said, “I KNOWWWW. Me too!” I love my nursing pals.

The extrovert part of my ambivert personality was very satisfied with this week. 😉

for life experience with women’s health/OB

I’m already finding that my life experience is proving to be an advantage.

Coming into the class, I already knew a lot about the female body and about pregnancy-related topics, so I’m not having to absorb a lot of new material.

Yay!

What are you thankful for this week?