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So I get home from running various errands at around 1 this afternoon, and I discover the furnace isn't working. I have an oil furnace with a somewhat outmoded and temperamental thermostat; it's supposed to work automatically, but in practice I always have to set it manually for it to function correctly. Normally, the boiler turns on immediately when I turn it up; but today, nothing happened at all.

I remembered then that I hadn't had any hot water when I shaved this morning; I'd written that off, because I realized my mother was washing dishes at the same time, and in this house if one person's using the hot water, you're not going to get any elsewhere until they've turned it off. And I'd run the heat through in the middle of the night, with no problems, so I didn't realize the lack of hot water was a symptom of a larger problem.

So I called Miller Oil, and the dispatcher said she'd page one of the technicians and they'd call me back. An hour later, no one had called; so I called back and got a different dispatcher, who said he'd re-page the technician. I'd told the first dispatcher that I was in Williamsburg, and even gave her the account number, so I didn't expect any problems. But there are always problems, so I shouldn't have been shocked when the technician called and asked exactly where my house was. I figured he was already in town, so I told him, "It's right off Richmond Road". He didn't know where Richmond Road was. Then I found out he was in Norfolk-- the dispatcher had given him the right street name and number, but the wrong city.

So now the Peninsula technician's supposed to be on the way, and for some reason it's going to take him 45 minutes to get here. Norfolk's only an hour away; it would have been easier for the first guy to just come on over. Oh well, as long as it gets fixed and I've got heat during the night, I guess I shouldn't complain.