You Don't Know What You've Got Till It's Gone...

(apologies to Joni Mitchell)

Came home last night after King & I rehearsal to find my wife bundled up in the chair. Peaking out from beneath a blanket or ten, she said, "We have no heat."

What???

Resisting the urge to back up and come in again in hopes that it will become 2006 instead of 1806, I ask for details. Apparently there's not a lot of detail left to give - the heat pump isn't working. Yes, and those who live in the area know that last night was probably the coldest night of the season so far. And tonight will be even colder.

We eventually rebundled up and went to bed. Thankfully our home is warmer on the second floor where the bedrooms are than on the ground floor and the evening passed in relative comfort.

This morning a friend of mine came over to look at the heat pump with me. We have gas packs and apparently there was no gas getting into the unit outside, so no pilot lights were on. It's a self-igniting unit with the spark down into the unit (no need to be accessible for a match) but there was no gas smell at all and nothing came out of the bleed-off valve. If there had even been a little gas in the line there would've been a hiss, but there wasn't. Oddly enough, though, our hot water heater works fine and we were able to take hot showers (thank heaven for small favors).

I'm now waiting for my friend to consult with a heating and air guy he works with for more information. Hopefully it'll then just be a matter of determining where the gas is holding up....