Irony

So, I'm sitting on the couch at 3 in the afternoon with one child napping and one child taking his rest time. It's snowing outside in lovely, huge flakes and the house smells like the posole stew I'm making for my book (and dining) group meeting tonight. Pretty wonderful.

Then the space heater whooshing directly at me distracts me for a moment, and wait- is that the furnace I hear trying to fire up? A glance at the dining room shows that I still have quite a bit of cleaning to do to get ready to host said book group (I can't see the kitchen from my spot on the couch, but it's even worse). And is that the furnace again?

So, yes, the furnace is out. Thank goodness it decided to go out after it warmed up the house this morning, and the furnace guy managed to get the motor to run once more and we got up to 68 degrees this afternoon. Now, we seem to be on a long, cold slide into night (without a new motor available until next Tuesday). And yes, I'm having 7 other lovely ladies over tonight for a potluck dinner to talk about Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers. I did email them and recommend they bring an extra sweater when they come over. Oh, and it's snowing.

There goes the furnace again- trying to get the darn motor to engage....

And here's the irony:

We bought a wood burning stove this weekend. And the contractor who's installing it was over this morning to measure, etc.

And as he left he said, "As soon as there's no more snow on your roof, give me a call- you're first on the list!"

We'll be getting out the down sleeping bags and down comforter (we keep the house warm enough with two small ones that it's too hot to sleep with a down comforter- unless, of course, the furnace is out). And who knows, we may be snuggling together as a family in bed tonight. I actually don't mind the idea of the cold so much as the possibility of pipes freezing and breaking. I feel like we (the live creatures in the house) can deal with cold, even if we have to spend time elsewhere for a few days. But the pipes? They have no defenses. Or escape plans.

And there's the darn furnace again...