One of Those Days

Or The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow

Ever have one of those days (or weeks), that things just weren't going right? We had one of those times recently. It all started when Ward decided that one of our cars needed a new battery. Not a big deal. We usually take it to a local discount store where we get a new battery put in. We've done it many times before but this time was different. Some how they got the battery in backwards which blew the main fuse of the car and nothing electrical worked. And, it was Sunday when there was no place open to get a part to fix it. After many hours of gnashing of teeth, Ward called Wally to pick him up as he no longer had a working car. In the meantime, Theo was waiting for a car, any car, so he could drive back to school before dark. That didn't happen because I had one car at work while the the other cars were either being exiled in no-fuse land or retrieving Ward from no-fuse land.

However by the end of the evening, Theo was back at school and the rest of us were at home (minus a car). But, we didn't have any heat. The furnace didn't seem to be turning on—a problem that we had dealt with before and thought we had fixed by getting a new thermostat. But apparently, that didn't fix it. So Ward and Wally went to bed that night tired and frustrated, but happy to be home. Meanwhile, I went around singing, “The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow.” Sometimes, I can be annoying that way.

But the sun did come out tomorrow. Or maybe I should say the moon came out tomorrow. By the 11 PM the next night, we had a working car and a working furnace. It took a lot of complicated coordination of schedules and work from repairmen, but it all got fixed. The great thing about “one of those days” is they never last forever. The sun eventually does come out.

__________________________________________________________________________________

But Wait, There's More.

As for the battery: we got a substantial discount on the whole bill. While never actually saying they did something wrong, the store took care of us and compensated us adequately for the problems they had inadvertently caused.

As for the furnace: We had the furnace tuned up at the end of August when it was determined that we needed a new chimney. Until we got the new chimney, the serviceman turned off the oil to the furnace and disconnected the wire, so we wouldn't run it without the proper exhaust. However, he neglected to tell anyone. That, along with some other things, made this a complicated problem to solve. However, it did get solved by a very good repairman and we have heat. There was no extra charge for this fix.