A Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Well, it started when I noticed a slight odor coming from the basement. It was the burner, and one of the valves was dripping a bit. FARGHHH!! I couldn't tell if we were out of oil because the damn gauge is broken, but thinking back on when our last delivery was and how cold it has been, it could only mean that we had indeed run out. Since I don't have a contract with a fuel company, I then had to find one to get us a delivery. Well, because of the huge storm we had, all of the oil companies were backed up AND lots of people were having emergencies.

I had to shovel this yesterday so we could GET an oil delivery!

Our usual oil company could only come as early as today. That was the best I could do. And then it got cold. Now, because of the cost of fuel oil and the fact that this 2 story house is usually empty most of the day, I keep it cold. We keep the living room warm because that's where we spend most of our time. But the rest of the house? My bedroom upstairs is always cool, and the kitchen, dining room and the kids rooms? 55*. Yep. That's cold.

Charlie started really worrying about the pipes freezing and once he worries about something that sets me off. He's usually pretty calm and cool. So I started calling other companies to see if they could get me just SOME oil to get us through the night. One finally said they had a truck in the neighborhood and would call back in 10 minutes. I then went to take Charlie to jazz band, with my husband's van since we've been parking single file due to the snow. Would you believe I passed the truck on the way to the high school and since Charlie didn't have my car keys, he couldn't get cash for the driver and they wouldn't wait?!? Just our luck!

So, we had to stick it out and freeze. I was overwhelmed with the urge to run to the kitchen and raid the cabinets. Even though the stress and worry was causing a huge pit in my stomach I wanted to shovel food in my mouth to comfort me and calm me down. Now, the house is pretty bare. I need to do a huge grocery shop, but there are still some treats here. I had a bag of Kisses from Christmas that I never used. I had opened it the other day to give everyone a snack and there was still about half the bag left. Last night I could really envision sitting with the bag in my lap and just peeling off that shiny silver wrapper and shoving one lovely chocolate drop into my mouth after another.

I ran to my computer and posted on my February challenge Facebook page that I was extremely close to throwing it all out the window and plowing through whatever I could get my hands on. Everyone there was sympathetic to what I was going through and helped encourage me and talk me down from that ledge. I still had some push ups to do from our bonus points 100 push up challenge, so I did them. I called my dad to  make sure we were doing everything we could in regards to the situation. We watched Big Bang Theory. The time passed and so did the urge to binge.

Charlie and I hunkered down with blankets and comforters and slept in the living room. It was a rough night, sleeping on the couch. It got down to 53* in the house. I bet the kids were thrilled to go to school this morning! I called the oil company and found out that we would be in the first round of deliveries. When the truck pulled up at 8 am, I could have kissed the driver! After about 45 minutes, I put the burner back on. It went on but didn't fire, so I hit the reset button. It went on AND fired, and then it went off. It did that a few times and then stayed on! So it wasn't clogged from all of the gunk at the bottom of the tank! When the burner fired, I prematurely called Charlie to say that the burner DID go on, and then he asked if the heat came up. Crap. NO! Well, it took about 7 minutes, but the heat finally came up and the house is no longer a 1,600 square foot walk-in fridge!

Now I'm waiting to hear from the plumber about servicing the burner and getting a new gauge for the oil tank. I called twice and he has yet to call me back, so I'm stuck in the house. I would LOVE to get to the gym and work off some of this stress. I also need to hit the grocery store BADLY. It's Ash Wednesday, which means a meatless day as well as all Fridays during lent. I have 2 boxes of macaroni and cheese and 3 eggs. I don't think my husband wants peanut butter and jelly quesadillas for dinner tonight, although that would make a nice lunch! I never thought of that! Necessity IS the mother of invention!