This morning, we enjoyed a long lost luxury....burning a good smelling candle. Back in my early days of being a mom and staying at home, I seem to remember burning candles nearly everyday. As we became older, our allergies grew along with us, and burning candles was only something I could do when Bob was sure to not be around (they immediately give him migraines). As time went on, and kids with asthma were added to the mix, the art of candle lighting virtually disappeared.
Today we lit a new candle that my always very thoughtful mother gave to me on my birthday....a lovely candied pear scent made with soy wax. We have found that the soy wax candles do not appear to bother any of us in the home, Bob does not even realize when one is burning, and they seem to even have a more fragrant and pleasant scent than regular wax. They are all around superior. We set it in the living room on the mantel, and I just had to take the opportunity to play the piano for a while, my baby playing contentedly in his jumperoo. It was lovely.
About an hour later, a quite different smell was in the air....kind of like burning rubber. I thought the soy candle had gone bad. Upon further searching, I discovered it was our furnace....whirring in the basement with no signs of productive work, and emitting an increasingly strong smell. With absolutely no tricks in my problem solving brain to deal with the monstrous contraption, I resigned more quickly to defeat today and called Minnegasco:Machines 2, Mom still 0.
With all of the large windows in our house and the very sunny day we were having(don't forget my perfectly clean windows letting in every drop of warm sunshine!!), our house retained a comfortable 68-70 degrees until about 12:30 when the sun shifted to the other side. At that point, the inside temp began to plummet--after all, it was only about 6 degrees outside. Turning on the forgotten gas fireplace and fan (we only use this once or twice a year at best), I was impressed with the efficiency with which it seemed to heat our entire home....we were up to 70 degrees everywhere in less than an hour!
The very nice Minnegasco guy came and replaced our blower motor which had died. Our furnace is now working fantastically, and we can even hear the difference and the strength of the air flow. Hooray! Heat!
While waiting for the kids to get home from school, I tried reasoning with my washer once again. This time, it was even more obvious that things were not well. I turned the drain plug to empty the rinse water and was greeted by the most unpleasant stench of mold and mildew mixed with sewer or something even worse. In less than 5 minutes, our entire home now smelled like a manure farm. The kids came home just in time to experience the maximum intensity of the smell.....lucky them. Of course, the water was running everywhere, as though there were some kind of anti-force diverting it from the well placed bucket below the drain. (I think the water may have been possessed) Going against my newly developed habits, I reached for all of my cleaners containing bleach. Sorry, but this disgusting circumstance required the immediate removal of stench, and I knew for a fact that these harsh chemicals were going to provide that for me.
With Jonny and Crispy now literally gagging on the air in their bedroom, we took a break from our house and drove away. First on the agenda was getting the oil changed....I am thinking that it has been since June that it has needed a change. When I had picked up Crispy at his bus stop earlier, the engine had sounded so horrible that both of us were surprised we made it to the school to pick up a sick Melissa, and back home again. We then went to Target for who knows what....I honestly do not remember the reason, but I have another house full of *stuff* that I am sure was never even on the original list. Oh well.
We went to bed tonight with a slight mildew smell remaining in the hallways, but at least an absence of sewer-scent. It would have been nicer to fall asleep with the initial scent of candied pear still lingering in the ventilation system, but after everything else that went on today, I guess we will settle for this!
Today we lit a new candle that my always very thoughtful mother gave to me on my birthday....a lovely candied pear scent made with soy wax. We have found that the soy wax candles do not appear to bother any of us in the home, Bob does not even realize when one is burning, and they seem to even have a more fragrant and pleasant scent than regular wax. They are all around superior. We set it in the living room on the mantel, and I just had to take the opportunity to play the piano for a while, my baby playing contentedly in his jumperoo. It was lovely.
About an hour later, a quite different smell was in the air....kind of like burning rubber. I thought the soy candle had gone bad. Upon further searching, I discovered it was our furnace....whirring in the basement with no signs of productive work, and emitting an increasingly strong smell. With absolutely no tricks in my problem solving brain to deal with the monstrous contraption, I resigned more quickly to defeat today and called Minnegasco:Machines 2, Mom still 0.
With all of the large windows in our house and the very sunny day we were having(don't forget my perfectly clean windows letting in every drop of warm sunshine!!), our house retained a comfortable 68-70 degrees until about 12:30 when the sun shifted to the other side. At that point, the inside temp began to plummet--after all, it was only about 6 degrees outside. Turning on the forgotten gas fireplace and fan (we only use this once or twice a year at best), I was impressed with the efficiency with which it seemed to heat our entire home....we were up to 70 degrees everywhere in less than an hour!
The very nice Minnegasco guy came and replaced our blower motor which had died. Our furnace is now working fantastically, and we can even hear the difference and the strength of the air flow. Hooray! Heat!
While waiting for the kids to get home from school, I tried reasoning with my washer once again. This time, it was even more obvious that things were not well. I turned the drain plug to empty the rinse water and was greeted by the most unpleasant stench of mold and mildew mixed with sewer or something even worse. In less than 5 minutes, our entire home now smelled like a manure farm. The kids came home just in time to experience the maximum intensity of the smell.....lucky them. Of course, the water was running everywhere, as though there were some kind of anti-force diverting it from the well placed bucket below the drain. (I think the water may have been possessed) Going against my newly developed habits, I reached for all of my cleaners containing bleach. Sorry, but this disgusting circumstance required the immediate removal of stench, and I knew for a fact that these harsh chemicals were going to provide that for me. With Jonny and Crispy now literally gagging on the air in their bedroom, we took a break from our house and drove away. First on the agenda was getting the oil changed....I am thinking that it has been since June that it has needed a change. When I had picked up Crispy at his bus stop earlier, the engine had sounded so horrible that both of us were surprised we made it to the school to pick up a sick Melissa, and back home again. We then went to Target for who knows what....I honestly do not remember the reason, but I have another house full of *stuff* that I am sure was never even on the original list. Oh well.
We went to bed tonight with a slight mildew smell remaining in the hallways, but at least an absence of sewer-scent. It would have been nicer to fall asleep with the initial scent of candied pear still lingering in the ventilation system, but after everything else that went on today, I guess we will settle for this!
1 comment:
Yikes! I can't believe you stopped in the middle of all this to answer the phone to talk with me. I guess what we talked about is true, life really doesn't ever get any easier - the challenges just change. Bummer.
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