Dirty Job

Well, we didn't have any fun playing outside today. Or even running errands, for that matter! Last night, I told Gus that we were running low on oil in our tank. I thought we had about an eighth of a tank left, which isn't a whole lot. And, as it turns out, I was reading the gauge wrong. Oops!! We must've been running on fumes, at that point! We managed to make it through the night just fine, and Gus even got a hot shower this morning. It got cooler towards the end, though. And then he went downstairs for breakfast and realized that there was no heat. Not good! The house is insulated reasonably well, but it's winter. In Massachusetts. And it's pretty darn cold outside!

Anyway, he called and scheduled an oil delivery for today, which was great. Even better was when the delivery guy arrived at 9am. Nice and early-- hooray! We had kept warm by hanging out in the living room with lots of blankets and the space heater turned on. But really, it was in the mid-fifties throughout the house, and that is just too cold to be comfortable unless you're wearing a jacket.

So the delivery went off without a hitch, which was to be expected. But then came the fun part... I needed to get the boiler started up again. Which meant that I needed to bleed all the air out of the system. And, let me just say, that really, REALLY sucked. It will be a thousand times easier, if I ever have to do it again. It would probably only take a few minutes. But I had no idea what I was doing this morning, and it took forever. Lots of hunting for various wrenches, looking at internet tutorials, talking to Gus on the phone, etc. But... I DID IT!

Sure, I ended up getting oil all over my hands, but I did it! ha! And really, that was my big accomplishment of the day. I spent the rest of the day trying to get the stench off of my hands (it's really awful), and then doing my usual chores (washing dishes, doing laundry, cooking, etc.). Actually, my smartest move was to make orange cookies. I used the leftover orange zest, and scrubbed it all over my hands! It got rid of most of the smell! And, bonus: the cookies were excellent.

Tomorrow is another day! Let's hope it doesn't involve any dirty work!