Something's Fishy - I Smell a Rat

As you know, we haven't had heat in our downstairs since Saturday. It was 23 degrees this morning. 

Chilling news.

We took the little electric heater from the upstairs bathroom down and made do yesterday.

But this morning was a different story. When I hadn't heard from the service people by 9:05 a.m. I called them. I was on hold for an awfully long time, but finally someone came on and said they'd be here this afternoon.

So we set about building a nice fire, which began to warm the living room (a little bit, it had to warm the firebox first) and put the electric heater on the other end of the room. We got up to a brisk 61 degrees in the living room, but it felt  much colder. The cold seemed to be coming off the walls and floor in waves.

Not more than half an hour later, the office called back and said they'd had a cancellation and would be here in a few minutes.

The fellow arrived about a half hour later, turned on the heat pump and a foul, burning smell filled the house. He went down stairs. Banging and thumping could be heard through the floors.

Eventually he came a'knocking at the door. "I found yore problem. But I don't know if ye want to see it er not."

"Is it a rat?" I asked. I had told Husband when the whole thing began it smelled like burnt meat. And I don't care how old the "little boy" is, I knew that gleam in his eye. He was about to show the girl something to squeal about. (no matter how old the girl is!)

The man grinned at me, and brought forth a very black, charred mouse corpse, it's tail suspended between the grip of a pair of pliers.

Now, I don't know why a mouse would decide to croak right on a heat strip of our heat pump, but he surely did.

The service tech had us back in business in no time, though the smell took a little while to go away.

We decided to keep the fireplace fire, the first of the winter.

I look forward to more fires, but I hope they are under more pleasant circumstances with less drama.

Speaking of drama, there was  more of that later on, but we'll chat about that next time, 'k?