Last week our furnace began to bite the dust. By the time we got back from a weekend away, it had bitten the dust.

So it’s 48 in our house today and 41 in our driveway. I’m frozen despite being dressed in winter fleece pants over long johns, ragg wool socks, winter boots, a turtleneck, and my GoreTex-lined Norwegian sweater.

Our furnace comes on and makes half-hearted attempts to do things for 5-10 minutes every so often, but clearly it’s not helping much. I have two guys coming to give estimates today and two more tomorrow, and I hope some obvious conclusion about our options jumps out at us soon. I have a feeling “how soon can you do it?” will end up being a pivotal point when we compare their bids. I’m also hoping that the guy who’s now 15 minutes late for the first estimate appointment will see something simple and obvious to fix and get us back in heat for the time being.

I also looked into fireplace inserts, and it sounds like what we need would start around $2500, all told. Probably money well spent, but not necessarily at the same time we’re paying to install a new furnace and address god knows how many other problems in the process.

Even Candy seems to appreciate having a blanket over her–V tucked her in with a doubled blanket last night, and she stayed put under it until morning. I retucked her this morning at 8:30, and she hasn’t budged since. The cats are snuggling under the comforter.

And here’s proof that it’s too darned cold in this house: we have flannel sheets, a flannel duvet, and the doubled down comforter on the bed, but even Victoria agreed that we needed the afghan on top, too. Last night I just about went to get my neoprene face mask for skiing, too, except that I would’ve gotten too cold getting out of bed to go look for it. I even slept through the night without getting up to pee despite having wanted to pee since about 2am. I’ve heard that it’s a bad idea to get in the habit of peeing in the night, because it’s a problem that will only get worse over time if you give in to it, so maybe this will be good bladder and sleep training for me.