GTs needed

[jducoeur]

Okay, this weekend is officially sucking on the home front. Knowing that the blizzard was coming and our boiler was occasionally stopping, msmemory headed home to tend to it. She got home and found it kicked out (as we'd feared) so she got Taylor and Murphy (our oil company) to come poke at it last night. They did so, and declared it fit for service.

They lied. She is now stuck at home alone (I'm trapped in Boston, and from all accounts have at best even odds of making it home if I try). The boiler won't stay on for more than a couple of minutes at a time. The guy from Taylor and Murphy can't get to her because Trimount Ave. (the short steep hill before our house) is impassible. He's going to try again soon, but it's all a crapshoot. She's more or less stuck at home: her car is buried under three feet of snow, so the only way she even *could* get out would be by begging a ride from our neighbors, the plow drivers, to evacuate her. (At which point, the house probably freezes solid until the weather goes above freezing.)

So please offer up from prayers to the gods of bureaucracy and road sanding, that Waltham will get off its ass and get Trimount Avenue sanded and salted, before things get dangerously cold at home...

Comments

[keshwyn]

Keshwyn thinks warm thoughts at your boiler. Come on, be a good teakettle and heat.

[alienor.livejournal.com]

Good thoughts on their way. That's awful!

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

Er...we should be in tomorrow, and my car's shoveled out and has AWD and stuff. If she really needs to get out, drop a line. (Liber info is accurate.)

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

Don't just hope they plow. Call them and tell them the situation. Maybe they can help. Ask your repair people to call as well.

Make it sound life-threatening. Because, if it gets cold enough, it is.

[msmemory.livejournal.com]

I left voicemail on the city emergency response line. Whether it worked or not (to get the sanders out), the oil man is here now, and fiddling with the ignition system.

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

Be sure to ask him what user-servicable parts you can keep on hand against a future need.

I once paid about 95 dollars in service for a 75 cent part. Now I keep several iterations of the various parts on hand.

[oakleaf-mirror.livejournal.com]

Oh, good! Hopefully, they get it right, this time.

[the-nita.livejournal.com]

You're okay, yes?

(And doing all the normal "how to stay warm in a house with no furnace things", yes?)

[oakleaf-mirror.livejournal.com]

Good thoughts on the way from here.

I second what goldsquare said. Call the city, and have them fix the road, ASAP, and get the oil company out there, even if it's the middle of the night.

If I can be of any tangible assistance, let me know.

[msmemory.livejournal.com]

Nope, the oil in the tank is jelled, and the line is frozen.

Time to decide among: staying and bundling up in bed; calling the police and see if they can take me to Eliz's; start digging out the car.

[oakleaf-mirror.livejournal.com]

I'm so sorry your house isn't feeling secure. If I can help, don't hesitate to call. My car is dug out, and the roads around here look fairly pasable, I think, though I haven't been on them. I'll be awake for hours, yet.

[baron-elric.livejournal.com]

Good freaking grief. I've been in this situation, and it aspirates. Doesn't help that the temps have dropped back below zero now that the snow is done.

You have our good wishes, of course. If you'd like me to haul south with my 4WD beast I'll make a try for that hill. You know the number if you need me. Bear in mind that the police might be relucant to help in relocating the cats. Helpful friends are more likely to be able to help with the furry family.

Let us know that you're okay? All of you?

[dsrtao]

Jane and Merlin are ensconced in our guest room. All is quiet.

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

Oh, good!

[ian-gunn.livejournal.com]

Oh, not good. Rather then waiting for the temp to come up I suggest you rent one of the portable heaters they use for work sites from Home Depot or a similar store. Of course you need to be able to move around to do that.

We managed to get out yesterday afternoon and make it home. Though, if many more people ignored the "emergency only" driving condition, it would have been gridlocked in Boston before we could get to the highway. We needed to get home to our girls.

[msmemory.livejournal.com]

For those following the saga, the Oil Guy couldn't do anything about the line last night, but he was back at 9:30 this morning, let himself into the basement, and had the boiler running by the time Justin and I got home at 10:30.

Oil Guy has gone out to get electrified wrapping tape to put around the oil feed line from the tank, and will be back later.

The cat, Merlin, is resting in the coziness of elizabear and dsrtao's guest room while Justin and I wait for the house to heat back up.

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

Do I recall correctly that the oil tank is outside of the house entirely?

Glad things are working now.

[jducoeur]

Correct. The guy from T&M is pretty annoyed by that -- he is firmly of the opinion that the installers should have found a way to make it work inside. But it's very difficult geometrically: the stairs are tiny, narrow, steep and have very low headroom, so we couldn't figure out how at the time. And having spent a *considerable* amount of money on this new tank, I'm disinclined to have to redo the whole project unless strictly necessary.

The problem isn't actually the tank; that has been fine. The problem is that the tank feeds from the top, and then has to drop the oil line its entire height (about six feet) down to the ground. That's where the gelling is apparently taking place: everything from the feeder valve to the ground is tending to gunk up. The reason we didn't have this problem with the old tank is that it fed from the bottom instead of the top.

For the short term, we're going to put some heat tape on it and insulate it. It looks like the long-term compromise is likely to be building an insulated shed around the tank, so it doesn't get slammed by the cold so badly.

[herooftheage.livejournal.com]

My loose understanding is that you're looking to buy a new place. Remember this problem when it comes to house-buying time, and count that as a serious point in favor of gas heat. (Besides which, you'll be able to power your washer/dryer with gas which is cheaper than electricity.)

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

And gourmet types like gas stovetops.

[jducoeur]

Oh, definitely. But we deal with that here with a propane tank on the side.

(Yes, it's a little goofy to have a propane tank that just does the oven, and more expensive than it's really worth. It made more sense when it was also feeding the hot water, when we bought the house, but we switched to a *much* more effective oil-fired hot water system about five years back. So now it's just for me to cook with...)

cooking with gas

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's good. And useful when the heat goes out on you, I presume.

Re: cooking with gas

[msmemory.livejournal.com]

Oh but I hear so many things about the dangers of trying to heat one's house with an oven - I don't think I'd try it.

Wish we had a fireplace, though.

Re: cooking with gas

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

My belief is that it's not a problem if you are present and awake -- unlike a gas heating system, it doesn't have as many safety overrides. I've done it, it worked fine, although of course mostly for one room.

[jducoeur]

Makes sense, and it's a consideration. But it's lower on the list than a number of others. (Not least that I quite like our current general location, and this end of Waltham doesn't have municipal gas...)

[msmemory.livejournal.com]

Yes, we have a list.
- No outdoor oil tank
- No retaining walls around the driveway.
- Off-street parking
- Walk-out shed/basement/garage for snowblower, lawnmower
- Somewhere to store SCA gear that isn't two flights up from the cars (such as a garage or basement)

gear

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah. There's nothing like it. In CA and PA, we had all our gear on a shelf on one side of the garage. Into the car, out of the car, no sweat.

Not the case here, alas. Still too much else in the garage.

oil tank redux

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

You may be able to use a prefab utility shed from Sears (etc) instead of custom. On the other hand, custom might get you more storage space for other things if you need it.

These things are such learning experiences, (she says, thinking back to the water dripping on our computer equiment two winters ago...) Sorry you had to have a learning experience right now!

Re: oil tank redux

[jducoeur]

Well, bear in mind that the shed needs to go around the tank, which imposes a number of constraints. Most aren't really the right shape for the thing. (Quite tall and wide, not very thick, with all the controls on the top.) Size is a serious issue -- there's barely enough room for the tank itself in that location, and most prefab sheds are really too large, I think...

[cellio]

Oh good. I'm glad you were able to get somewhere warm last night and that things are looking up now.

[hfcougar.livejournal.com]

I'm glad things worked out.

This kind of storm is one of the very few times I'm glad that I live in dorms.