Rude Awakening

Waking up to a cold house when outside it is 10ºC is not as bad as it could have been – say -3ºC or so, as we can expect this winter. Still, it is disturbing when the furnace is newly installed and cost a bomb. Something my husband used to say came back to me: increasing functions (read electronic) invariably leads to more stuff to break down. Tell me about it!
After phoning for service and fishing out the book of words left for me, I tried several things, such as lowering thermostat and checking for gas leaks, etc. but on removing the cover figured I should leave this electronic monstrosity to the experts.
Gas stove is working so after a couple of cups of tea I decided to move into basement and curl up with some sewing in front of my, also fairly new, gas fireplace.
No pilot is lit! Ouch! I remembered that the pilot was shut off during our heat wave! Heat wave? You remember, that 20 minutes we had in August?
So down I knelt and pretended I was in front of the propane furnace in our RV. Several tries later, I gave up and as it was well into the day by now, called my neighbour, who had only just returned from an out of town trip, to ask him if he could light it for me. The gas to it was shut off – and I hadn’t checked that lever. Thankfully, he got it going and set the thermostat to a comfortable range. If it came to a pinch, this would heat the house, or at least enough of it to suffice until help arrived.
Then we discovered a wall switch at the door to furnace room had been inadvertently switched off! Despite it having been taped over to prevent such an occurrence. I could have kicked myself for not checking this; it had happened before when my cleaning lady was new to the house. May I claim my brain was not properly functioning at 7:30am? Canceling the service call I apologized to a machine for disturbing someone’s Sunday.
I was not meant to sing at a special service across town this morning and my choir gown, carefully packed, will go back to my home church at next practice. My penance will be to work on church related items after I have told you, my dear reader, of my lessons learned this morning.