Blogging In The Snow

Today is another real interesting day for my blogging at both Progressive Values and at Wizbang Blue where I'm also an editor. The Christmas holiday is fast approaching, it's only 21 degrees here in Portland, Oregon, and there's as much as 11 inches of snow in the city. And, oh yeah, I have no heat. And I'm very cold.

It turns out that the fuel line and oil tank decided to wait until the holidays and the worst Arctic cold storm in years to give one big lump of coal for Christmas.

I installed my own new oil furnace a few days ago when I knew that the motor failed in the old one because of the terrible noises it was making and lack of heat. But when the new one sounded good, but was still cutting out before offering any real heat to speak of to this very cold guy, I knew that I had some other real problems and should perhaps consult a real furnace professional.

I found a company that was willing for a mere $180 an hour(extra pay for Sunday service as well as an extra charge for the weather) to look at the furnace, and come to find out I have problems with the fuel line and tank. So for a mere few hundred dollars in service fees, I'm still here in the cold. And it turns out that the fuel line problems usually aren't something that fuel line companies work on this time of year, because they involve lots of digging in the ground and tearing up concrete basements. So I'm highly likely to be spending both Christmas as well as New Year's Day in the cold with only some woefully inadequate electric heaters to put up a losing effort to keep me warm. And this is after I made a little cash gift to a poor family as well as wrote a check to the Salvation Army so that other less fortunate persons might have a nice Christmas.

Sometimes it seems that no good deed goes unpunished.

Well, I'll continue to blog despite these Siberian prison type cold conditions. Or at least until my toes fall off from frostbite. Even my pets think that I suck as an owner because of the cold in the house for a few days while I figure what to do next. Happy Holidays.