So about an hour ago, on this lovely 11 degree F night, I wander upstairs and notice a smell, a smell that says “something is burning.” After some quick inspection, I deduce that it’s associated with the forced-hot air vents.
Well, I walked past the furnace on my way upstairs, so it’s not actively on fire, but this is still wrong. I stumble across my sleepy dad, who woke up smelling it and he tells me that the furnace blower has sounded cranky all day.
I get the thing to fire up and watch it and listen. It’s always done two things. The gas generator whirs and growls, and if you’re standing next to it, you can hear the shuddering rumble of a fire, and after a minute or so, the blower kicks on. Another minute, the gas generator shuts down, and the blower hangs out for another minute more, then shuts down itself.
No blower. Huh. Well, that’s not a good sign. Flip the emergency switch. Have to call the service guys in the morning.
Meanwhile, it’s chilly outside. And yes, the service guys are on 24-hr call, but I worked 24-hr on-call before and I’m not that cruel. Time for plan B.
We put in a wood-stove fireplace insert a few years ago. It’s part of a plan to save money and be a little eco-sensitive (and politically responsible, if reducing our oil dependency is any incentive). The thing gets crazy hot and heats most of the house when it’s up to temperature. We light it up, and now I’m on late-night fire watch to tend it into the wee hours of the morning. We’ve never really figured out how to bank the thing. Supposedly, if you get it REALLY hot and stoke it full of wood, you can slam the damper shut and it will be so starved for oxygen that it’ll sit and smolder, but be too hot to go out. It’s sort of a fine balance, I guess. Too closed, and the fire goes out an hour later. Too open, and it burns all of its fuel off in two. Really too hot, and the fire escaping the flue lights our chimney on fire (potentially).
Whatever. I’m up anyway. But it makes me stop and think. I might be too much of an (ex)boy scout, but I seem to have this obsession with the “Be Prepared” thing. I’m the guy people come to when they need something in a hurry, from sharpies to a spare tire jack. I carry a pocket knife at all times, because you just don’t know. Most often it’s used to pry something open (gently) or cut open a box or envelope. I wouldn’t often think of using it in a fight. Thankfully, I’ve never had to.
It’s also been part of the way I was brought up. We always had an answer for things. Power outages. Flat tires. I can’t say if it’s just the way my family is, but there were so many times I’d be out as an AAA driver thinking, “There wasn’t someone you knew who could help you?” I end up wondering, “How many things do I have a contingency for?”
Unless I need to have my truck dragged to a shop, I’m in pretty good shape. My family has brought me spare keys and helped me with flat tires, and I’m sure they’d bring me gas too, if I was ever that unlucky. I suppose it’s this inspiration that’s let me turn around and throw a few tools and a charged air tank in the back of my truck to go help a friend change our a spare. It was a good thing I brought the tank too; we weren’t planning on the spare also being flat, but it happens.
And of course, I drive a 4×4, the “No, I’m not getting stuck in the snow.” There’s a pair of tow chains in the back, and one of these days I’ll get enough money to put a winch on it. Gotta be careful with the chains, though. I have training. You can mess things up really well if you don’t know what you’re doing and what to pull on.
So I guess what I’m really trying to do is be an example, I suppose. Take a second and think things over. Think of what you have, and who’d you’d call, if you ended up getting stuck.
- Extended blackout; how do you get light? How do you cook food?
- Furnace quits in the winter; how do you stay warm?
- You slid out and got stuck in a snowbank; how do you get yourself out?
- You locked your keys in your car; how do you get in (without breaking a window? [if you only have one key for your car, you might wanna change that.])
- Your space heater set a carpet on fire; how do you put it out before it spreads?
- You busted a valve on your sink and it won’t shut off; do you know where the other shut-off is? (even in an apartment, there’s at least one)
I’ll answer all of these in the next post.
