Furnace Failure Makes Us Thankful

Some days I am taken by surprise what I write about on the blog.  I think my days are mine to decide, to have total control over, what will and won't happen.  Today I was once again reminded that that just isn't the case.

I came out of the bedroom this morning to find Dad peering at the thermostat.  The furnace isn't running he tells me.  Thankfully it couldn't have been off too long because the tempurature was only down the 62 degrees.  While that is a perfectly acceptable tempurature for us, Bert needs it warmer and he really doesn't like sudden tempurature changes.  Thankfully we have space heaters, which I grabbed and started up in his room. 

Of course these things usually happen on the weekend when it is hard to get a service person.  Dad calls the service person at home and there is no answer.  He tries his cell phone and the guy answers and says he can't hear Dad because he is standing by a furnace.  Once they start communicating he tells Dad he can be here in half an hour.  Thankfully, not for those other people with furnace trouble but for us, the service repair guy was already out and about in his truck not far from our house.

He comes and looks at the furnace and figures out the problem was a piece that he put on it last year.  Thankfully he thinks it will still be under warranty and it should be covered.  Thankfully we aren't buying a new furnace. 

Thankfully Dad was home and this didn't cut in on his sleeping, usually these thing happen when he is working.  Last night he worked the first four hours of  his shift and got put on call so he was home.  He wanted to request on call tonight, Sunday, because it was it would be the last night of his weekend not right in the middle.  He requested Saturday because another nurse, with more seniority, told him she was requesting tonight.  They get put on call based on seniority and who ever requests with the most seniority gets to go home.  Thankfully she told him her plans and he was able to be home this morning.  Thankfully there wasn't enough patients on his unit for the number of nurses they had scheduled.  A holiday weekend helped that out, sometimes they can go months without ever getting on call.  Also thankfully he didn't get called back in.

While I never would have chosen to have the furnace go out, it sure couldn't have worked out any better than it did and for that I am thankful.