brrrr

well, for 3 of the last 4 days we've woken up to no heat in the house. such fun!! this morning we discovered a unique new problem... no display at all on the thermostat. that's a new one! (no display, though, means we weren't able to see just how cold it was... which in this case is probably a good thing.)

luckily, one of the contractors i'd phoned to ask for a bid on the project returned my call this morning. we made an appointment for him to come out and spec a whole new heating system, and i was hoping he could fix what was wrong, too.

but first i had to take mimo to the vet for his yearly appointment and shots. that's never a fun thing to do. mimo, being only secretly brave, howls and yelps all the way to the cat hospital. it's a terrible, horrible, heart-wrenching sound. once we got there he stopped howling, though he was still a little freaked out, breathing fast and hissing in an "i'm scared" kind of way.

during the exam the vet found a totally icky inflamed area on his gum, back by one of his molars! we hadn't noticed... primarily because mimo hadn't told us! that sounds silly, but usually when cats are in pain they'll let you know. they won't eat, or they'll behave erratically. we had no signs from the meems that anything was wrong.

so the vet wants us to come back on tuesday so she can probe the area while mimo is under sedation. (oh yes, did i mention that this was already the most expensive month in the history of my life?? this is unbelievable.) there's a chance it's just a weird infection, in which case the vet can drain the abcess and put him on antibiotics. but if there's something actually wrong with the tooth itself, she may have to pull it. she can't tell for sure until she pokes and prods it a little.

well, after all of that i barely made it to the house in time for the heating guy. i think he was just getting ready to leave when i pulled up. (i suspect he wished he had left when i emerged from my car with a howling cat in tow.) we talked about my current situation (he couldn't fix it himself, but he'd call someone in to get it working this afternoon) and about replacing the unit altogether. he agreed that my ducts were total shit, too.

this guy (troy griles of mebane) only sells "bryant" units. the folks at carolina heating only sell "trane". i've heard good things about trane, but nothing at all about bryant. (granted, a lot of what i've heard about trane comes from their own advertising, but consumer reports also mentions that on average trane might require fewer service calls.) consumer reports specifically mentions that they didn't want to rate specific brands, though, because they pretty much all do the same thing: "All companies offer furnaces in a range of capacities and efficiencies, and we think manufacturers generally deliver on those specifications. Each brand offers a generally similar array of key features."

so, troy hands me a brochure and the most encouraging thing i see is that bryant boasts envoironmental friendliness by using "puron" instead of freon for cooling. (i can't find any indication about coolant in the trane brochure.) the bryant has a slightly higher AFUE (annual fuel utilization efficiency) than the trane, and the bryant also has the energy star seal of approval... the trane doesn't appear to.

here are links to the 2 different units, if any of you sick people are interested in learning more:
trane model XL 1200
bryant model 583b

both are gas/electric package units. (i really just wanted to type "package unit" again.)

oh, yeah. troy also quoted me a price of $5,668! (carolina heating quoted $9,280!) that's for the new unit and new ductwork. plus a gas line run to the house.

i've still got calls out to 2 other contractors, but if they don't call me back soon i'm tempted just to go with troy. one of my most persnickety neighbors recommended him to me, which says something. (if troy can please this neighbor, then he must be good.)

it's still cold in here right now. i'm waiting for troy to send over one of his technicians to fix this old, decrepit furnace. if we can get it running for just a few weeks, until we get back from our christmas vacation, then i can go ahead and schedule its replacement. which reminds me: another good thing about troy's company is that they're most familiar with bryant products. my carrier furnace is made by bryant's parent company, so they're pretty familiar with what i have. (i don't think carolina was ever really comfortable working on my carrier.)

so because i'm sitting here waiting it appears as if i'm not going to get to the office today, gosh darnit. this gives me an excellent opportunity to get moving on some of my christmas presents. much assemblage is needed. my fingers are cold and creaky, though... i don't know how much i'll actually be able to accomplish in this arctic house.

the director of the durham symphony just called. the orchestra is scheduled to do 2 concerts out in clinton on sunday. i was starting to doubt how much my services would be needed for this show (the people in clinton are providing the tympani & podium that i usually have to haul, and shoot... someone else could set up the chairs, right?) but now alan says that the 4th horn player is sick with the flu, and could i please play? sure! yay! i got to play the same part in a similar concert with the DSO a couple of weeks ago. it'll be nice to play again. renaissance woman: stage manager and musician!

so that will take up all of my day on sunday, which means that i'm going to have to miss the finale of survivor. don't snicker. i'm addicted. i guess i'll just have to watch the tape as soon as i get home that night.

Posted by xta at December 12, 2003 1:03 PM | TrackBack