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I'm WARM!
I got a portable electric heater today. It's so teeny ... it's about the size of a stack of 3 or 4 paperback books. But it really works. I've got it on the low setting, 750 watts -- I'm afraid of blowing a fuse if I try to run the high setting, since I've currently got just about every appliance in the house (two computers, electric lights, heater...) running on one set of plugs, and I don't know how well the house is wired. But my little corner here is comfortable even though it's down to about freezing outside. Of course, I'm also wearing two sweatshirts and there's an afghan over my lap, but I'm feeling genuinely comfortable and that's a nice change.
If only I could get the heater in the crawlspace running. There's a Toyo monitor stove down there -- basically a little oil furnace. It's just meant to heat the crawlspace and keep the plumbing from freezing, but I'm sure that if I cut a (temporary) hole in the floor, it'll warm the ground floor of the house in this cold-but-not-worth-lighting-the-boiler weather. However, I can't get it to run. It's not getting oil. I think it's either got a plugged line/filter, or else the oil is so low in the tank that it can't get enough to run. And ...
- Fuel oil companies won't deliver less than 100 gallons, and my "tank" is really a 55-gallon barrel.
- This is Labor Day weekend, so all the fuel places are closed and I can't even bring in my barrel to fill it up.
The maintenance guy at the News-Miner told me today that No. 1 fuel oil is the exact same thing as diesel -- fuel oil is just cheaper because it doesn't have all the taxes that the government takes from the sales of road-grade petroleum. So theoretically I could just take a gas can down to any gas station, fill it up with diesel and put it in my tank, and I'd know if it was the oil level or not.
He did warn me not to get any diesel on myself because it's worse than gasoline for getting the smell out ...
Maybe I'll do that tomorrow. Except I don't have a gas can; I'll have to run into town and buy one.
It's just one damn thing after another sometimes.
If only I could get the heater in the crawlspace running. There's a Toyo monitor stove down there -- basically a little oil furnace. It's just meant to heat the crawlspace and keep the plumbing from freezing, but I'm sure that if I cut a (temporary) hole in the floor, it'll warm the ground floor of the house in this cold-but-not-worth-lighting-the-boiler weather. However, I can't get it to run. It's not getting oil. I think it's either got a plugged line/filter, or else the oil is so low in the tank that it can't get enough to run. And ...
- Fuel oil companies won't deliver less than 100 gallons, and my "tank" is really a 55-gallon barrel.
- This is Labor Day weekend, so all the fuel places are closed and I can't even bring in my barrel to fill it up.
The maintenance guy at the News-Miner told me today that No. 1 fuel oil is the exact same thing as diesel -- fuel oil is just cheaper because it doesn't have all the taxes that the government takes from the sales of road-grade petroleum. So theoretically I could just take a gas can down to any gas station, fill it up with diesel and put it in my tank, and I'd know if it was the oil level or not.
He did warn me not to get any diesel on myself because it's worse than gasoline for getting the smell out ...
Maybe I'll do that tomorrow. Except I don't have a gas can; I'll have to run into town and buy one.
It's just one damn thing after another sometimes.