Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Susanne worked half of a day at work today. She had to head back to VA tonight because she was flying out tomorrow to head up to Boston for Paxton's next surgery. She didn't end up getting home until around 1:30pm. Poppy helped Susanne try to expedite the process of getting on the road so that she could get home as quickly as possible.

Even with help, Susanne didn't get on the road until 4:00pm. It was always such a production to go anywhere. She was getting tired of living out of a suitcase, but she didn't have much choice. Since she had been doing it for so long, she thought that the process would be shortened....obviously not.

She decided to pack a bag of tasty treats for the trip. She didn't take the time to eat lunch when she got home because she just wanted to get on the road. She made sure to take enough to tide her over for the whole way. After filling her tank up with gas, she decided to get a large sweet tea from Bojangles as the last addition to her collection of treats. She hadn't had sweet tea in so long and was looking forward to it.

Just like always, she had a six hour drive to get through. She did surprisingly well for not getting a lot of sleep and working half of a day. The frustrating part of the drive was that she was on the phone the entire time. She usually enjoyed this, but not when the phone calls were mainly focused on the recent water heater issues. She went back and forth between the home warranty company, the insurance company, the claims adjuster, the water mitigation company, and the heating and plumbing company. She was trying to figure out who was going to cover the water heater pan that was damaged. The home warranty company said that they would cover the water heater after the deductible was met, but not the pan. The insurance company said they would not cover the water heater after the deductible was met, but only the water damage that occurred from the water heater. If the pan was cracked due to wear and tear, then it would not be covered. Everyone was throwing their hands up and no one wanted to take responsibility for it. It made it difficult to get in touch with people because it was after hours for most people. The main problem was that the gentleman that was replacing the water heater was at the rental property and needed to know what to do. In addition to all of the chaos, Paxton was crying in the back seat. Susanne could feel her blood pressure rising out of frustration and had to pull over. Her temper was getting short with people that were not being helpful. She took a moment to breathe deeply and take care of Paxton. He always made everything better. She changed his diaper and held him for a few minutes. Once he was settled, she strapped him in and got back on the road.

When Susanne finally arrived home, she immediately noticed that it was colder in the house than usual. She had purposely turned the heat down while she was away, but this was way too cold for what she had set it at. She checked the thermostat right away. It read 42 degrees. She checked the setting, which was still reading 60. For some reason, the heat wasn't working. Could it be broken? She noticed that the sign for low batteries was blinking. She was hoping this was a quick fix. She switched the batteries out for new batteries that she had found in a drawer. Unfortunately, nothing changed. She called Scott to get some advice. It was way too cold for her, let alone Paxton. She decided to leave him in the warm car until she figured things out. She tried probably five sets of batteries from other functioning electronic devices and other batteries that were from a previously opened pack. She tried messing with the day and time on the thermostat. She tried adjusting the programmed heating schedule. She even tried to look in the basement at the furnace to see if the pilot light was on. No matter what she tried, nothing worked. After an hour and a half of trying to figure things out, Susanne was frozen to the core. She could no longer feel her feet and she was shivering. She could tell the cats were not happy either because they were balled up as tight as they possibly could be and didn't budge from their chosen spot. Susanne called the emergency number to the gas company to see what she should do. They informed her that they could not help her and she would need to call a HVAC company for assistance. Susanne tried calling Moppy and Chief to see if they could come over so a second pair of eyes could glance at things. Eventually, she couldn't stand it anymore. She had to get out of the house. She was going to have to ride around in the heated car until she figured out what to do. If the heat was truly broken, she would have to find somewhere else to stay tonight. This was not in the plans. It put a major damper on things especially since she still needed to pack for her trip to Boston. Packing for a week and a half for anywhere was a big undertaking. To do this for not only herself, but a child whom had medical issues on the actual day of travel would be a nightmare.

As she was driving, she thought that she might as well go to the grocery store and purchase a fresh set of batteries that were UNOPENED just for the heck of it so she could truly say she tried everything. Out of the two grocery stores that were close-by, she happened to choose the one that was closed. Luckily, the other one was open 24 hours, but now she had to drive out of her way to get there. By the time she got home it was now close to midnight. She prayed that this would solve the problem. Once she inserted the batteries into the thermostat, the flashing low battery sign stopped. Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! The heat kicked on immediately. She didn't understand why the multiple sets of other batteries didn't work, but at this point, she didn't care. The thermostat now read 40 degrees. She couldn't wait to get warm.

She started her unpacking process by bringing Paxton in first. She got him squared away in his bed before moving on. He actually appreciated his cold bed. She prepped his next feeding and caught him up on his missed medications. Next, she turned on the heating pad to warm up a spot on her bed for the cats. They caught on quickly and planted themselves right in the middle of it. It was easy to tell that they were ready to cuddle. She was shocked to discover how hard her Tempurpedic was due to the temperature. It was as solid as a rock. She was hoping it would soften up some before she had to climb in. She knew that wouldn't be for a while so she wasn't worried.

A load of laundry was started and the cat litter was scooped. She listened to the eleven messages that were on the answering machine. After one hour of the heat starting up again, it had only warmed up by five degrees. It was going to be a while before the place truly warmed up. Somewhere in the middle of all of this, Susanne scarfed down some dinner. She pumped to try to stay on somewhat of a schedule and then the packing began. She had to unpack just to repack for the next trip. She had to call it quits by 3:00am or she wouldn't survive tomorrow. Hopefully, she would get it all done.