Opps...my bad

Ok so ya'll have read funnies about my kids I've posted. I think it's only fair I post one about myself to even things out.

A few weeks ago when we moved over into the bigger house, the outside temps had started dropping into the chilly territory at night. Not cold, just chilly and enough chill to start thinking about needing the furnace. The first couple of nights we made do with a couple of space heaters. The next night though, it was quite apparent that we might need more than that as the temperature was dripping lower and lower. We realized we hadn't lit the furnace pilot but it wasn't a big deal as it has an electronic ignition system on it. Pretty easy task unless you have a blond (me) and a former blond who is all doped up due to his surgery the middle of the week before (Daniel) doing it.

We flipped the thermostat over to heat, lowered the thermostat all the way, and flipped all the switches on the furnace. I hit the ignitor button and a glow emerged in the window, I heard the click of the fan trying to turn over but then....nothing. The blower wouldn't kick on. Well convinced I'd done something wrong, Daniel tried it...same result. HAHA Mr I-am-man-therefore-smarter-handier-than-you-woman. We repeated this to the tune of a dozen times...all for naught. No heat, nada. I flipped it back over to the AC side and kicked it on and AC was working fine. The fan would kick on when I flipped the switch over to manual run, and to reverse the air flow. When I kicked it back over to the heat side, nothing. Shit, shit, shit...

Well having a rudimentary knowledge of furnaces due to my Dad having taken classes on furnace/AC repair when I was a kid, I knew that it probably was a sensor buggered up in there. Well SHIT! It was 10:30 Sunday night...I really didn't want to call out a repairman and pay the boatload he was sure to charge me. So I did the next best thing...I called my Dad. After telling him what it was and wasn't doing, he affirmed that I was probably right, there was probably a sensor out. Particularly the sensor that tells the blower to kick on when the furnace had adequately heated the air in the furnace. Unfortunately, Dad was on the other side of the dadburn state, but was going to be in town the next day. WOOT, we could make it one more night without the furnace. I dragged out some extra blankets and we slept in sweats. No biggie.

Well Dad showed up finally at 4pm the next day. He sat down in the hallway to read that obscenely small print on the schematic diagram on the front of the furnace to ascertain that the wiring was where it needed to be and hadn't gotten accidentally pulled loose. Then we proceeded to go through the steps to light the furnace. Daniel and Dad's sidekick watched from the living room as Dad hit the ignitor button, and watched the glow start, then die, as well as the click of the fan control, then the glow die, and no blower start. Then Dad's gaze turned to the gas line...he flipped the gas valve the other direction and hit the ignitor button again. In about two minutes the fan roared to life, just barely to be heard over my Dad's raucous laughter.

"Hey Sis...Ummm any particular reason you didn't turn the gas on?" he howled in laughter

"Ummm I thought Crip over there did it since HE was the one down there initially" I told him while groaning mentally.

"Hey, you shoulda known to double check E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G. woman, I'm medicated ya know." Daniel smirked at me

Dad's sidekick...well he was laughing like a hyena and I wanted to ...well kick the sidekick.

Gah...I can't believe that I forgot which way means open and closed on the gas valve! Oh well, I will NOT forget again, I can promise you that one folks.

ps My kids are still giving me shit about this one, and I still want to kick the sidekick.