about living in this kind of weather. I should have called for oil sooner. It's ridiculous that we ran out twice in a row. I've been patterning my behavior on last winter, which was freakishly warm, plus the past week with lows around zero burned up the oil a lot faster than the weeks before that with the lows in the teens. The man who came this morning at 7:30 with the regular oil delivery said that I can't expect same day delivery in this kind of weather - they're just too busy. How could I know, last year we always got same day delivery. The man who came last night to bring me emergency oil turned out to not be drunk, just tired, and clearly not accustomed to folks wanting oil at 2am. I had figured it must happen all the time, but apparently not. He told me that there were still oil trucks out at 5pm and if I had put my emergency call through then, he could have dispatched a truck to me. In my defense, I had told the answering service operator that I was going to run out of oil and she did not suggest any such thing.
Another thing is the condition of the snow removal in our "driveway". We did it ourselves with shovels and it is cleared enough (barely, we've had some intense mornings trying to get Steve's rear wheel drive truck out of the driveway) for our cars, but it was a very difficult obstacle course for the oil truck and the repair vans. I think it would be a real problem for a fire truck. And Steve and I still don't have snow tires. And I should have locked in a price for oil months ago (but I thought we were moving!!!), the price is $1.60 a gallon now.
I've been thinking lately about an early plan that we had to buy some land and live on it in a yurt. Last winter it might have worked, but this winter I'd be staying with relatives.
There's a little bit more to the story of last night. After we got the oil, the house never warmed up. The boiler would run briefly with long spans of time in between. I kept thinking that it had frozen up since it's an outside tank, but then it would cycle on to reassure me. I stayed up, online, for a while, waiting for it to warm up and went to bed at 4:30 finally, chilled to the bone. It was 50 degrees inside. I slept for about an hour and mostly laid in bed cold, trying to think of ways to have revenge on our old mortgage broker for ruining my life. When I got out of bed at 7am, it was 45 degrees inside. Thank goodness the oil delivery came right away and I asked the oil man to look at the boiler. The switch that controls the heat for upstairs was burned out and there was no heat up there. I tortured the emergency oil man for nothing. Aidan, slept until 8:45am and didn't know that anything had happened.
Tonight I took a long, scorching hot bath. I cooked myself like a lobster. It felt great.
Comments
fortunately for me I don't hate to say I told you so. I said you should call the emergancy oil line then, but I guess an answering woman knows better than me. Was that obnoxious enough?I love you and think you should move some where warm.
emergencysomewherethat's what you get for being obnoxious
OK, you two - it is like having you two here! Christy, I was thinking about the yurt the other day and very glad you'all where not stuck somewhere in it! All though you would have a fire box that you could use and keep warm with. I am with Tyson and hope you can get out of that barn soon. We got down to 19 two nights ago - now it is staying in the mid 30's. Your description reminds me of the last winter we had in Chicago - I would not wish that on anyone. I know you don't like them, but an electric blanket is a great tool for keeping warm at night. I can send you a king size that I have - just let me know.Love, Mom
Hey - our oil company is set up on an automatic plan with us. They just automatically come at a scheduled time (long before we run out of oil) and leave us a bill that has to be paid within thirty days or so. Do you have that kind of service available? Is there more than one oil company so you can shop around?
All three oil men suggested the automatic plan. I think I have to get my landlord to sign up for it though because the bills are in his name - they wouldn't put it in our name becuse we didn't pass their credit check.
Argh! Well, get that landlord to sign because boy oh boy does it take a load off your mind. Can't mess with the heating system in cold like this! And, on another note, I grew up in a yurt (I may have told you this before) but it was a wood one rather than one made of canvas - and it was easily and efficiently heated with a wood stove - even in the coldest weather!
Oh no! Last week we had a power outage for three hours and we were in the dark and freezing cold, too. I couldn't believe how fast the house got that cold, it was scary. I've decided that next year I must try , somehow, anyway to get a woodstove, in case of this type of thing. I'm glad you are all okay, and hope that you can work something out with the landlord!