… In South Texas this year. The nice tech from the local company who does maintenance on my central heating and air-conditioning informed me regretfully that my furnace is toast, belly-up, joined the choir invisible, rung down the curtain, and is in fact, an ex-furnace. (And a safety hazard, as well. He shut off the pilot light and closed the gas line, just in case.)

This does not come out of the clear blue, as I’ve been warned every fall for the last five years that it was tottering on its’ last legs— but should be good for one more winter. I replaced the AC when I moved in, since it gets far more of a work-out here in Texas. The furnace was installed by the builder (and was a cheap and inefficient unit anyway) and was due to be replaced sometime… but still, this comes at a very bad time. I can’t afford it, until I get into a permanent well-paying position. (Two days or sixteen hours to go at the vast corporate behemoth, and yes, I am counting the hours!)

Until then, I will be making do with a couple of electric heaters, lots of sweaters, and feather comforters (and the cats, those fur-covered heating pads!). The house is tiny, and well insulated… and as it is still in the high eighties during the day, it is actually kind of hard to visualize actually needing heat inside the house for a while.