I woke up at 3:30 on a cold and blustery morning to the acrid smell of deisel. We have an older oil furnace that had been dripping tiny amounts of fuel from the pump. I’d been catching it in a large can and returning it to the fuel tank. This smell was disconcerting so I got up. I would have preferred to stay snuggled in bed but my little “fix-it" voice urged me up and out. I went down to the basement and found the can overflowing and the drip making the noise of a frenzied drummer. Yuck it’s a mess and yuck it’s a problem I don’t have the knowledge to fix. No, I have the knowledge I’m just not going to fix it holding a flashlight, wearing a night shirt alone in the basement that gives us the jibblies. I know better than to wake my daughter. I changed out the can and went back to bed to make a list.

First, call the furnace man Dave. He’s wonderful and talks to me like I’m interested. I am.

Second, go into town first thing in the morning and buy some cat litter to soak up the fuel and a funnel to start loading this copious amount into a gas can.

Third, relax. I had already started to investigate other heating options and planned on swapping out this expensive furnace in the future. I just didn’t know the future had arrived so inconveniently at the start of a long dark winter. I found if I turned the thermostat up really high then the dripping decreased. Having done all I could do I went back to sleep.

Dave, who is a man of his word, arrived later in the day to repair the problem. His startled little jump upon seeing the stream of determined drips told me that it wasn’t going to be easy or cheap. The seal around the pump shaft was gone. We both agreed that putting an expensive new pump or burner on the old furnace didn’t make sense. He wasn’t even sure he could find the parts. He’d research it and get back to me. We spent some time going over my options but first he wanted me to move the caught fuel away from the furnace. Good thinking Dave.

Dave is methodical and articulate so I stood and listened. He explained why a heat pump, my first choice, doesn’t work well in this part of the world. It gets too cold and a heat pump becomes inefficient below 25 degrees. I don’t have natural gas available and propane is expensive and throws me back in to the jaws of the petroleum guzzling lion. He suggests a new electric forced air furnace that could easily hook up to the ducting that’s already in place. Sounds great but there’s just one little and pricey hitch. I need to have my electrical service to the house completely redone. This will cost between 2500.00 to 4500.00 dollars. Ah, the future has just smacked me in the face and screamed “deal with it".

I could be freaked out by all of this but I’m not. My daughter is standing beside me with words of encouragement and cash. Dave is honest and reliable. I’ve adapted by modifying my routine. Make coffee, feed the animals and go down into the basement and swap out the full can of fuel with an empty one.