February 21, 2011 Monday Night

Got up this morning at 6 AM and fed the dogs, gave Vito his shot, and got Tony off to work .......................... shivering. It was 59 degrees in the kitchen with the furnace broken. Was not horrible in the bedroom all night since we had an electric space heater on. Put on a couple layers of clothing and started reading the newspaper and watching the morning news as I waited for the furnace repair guy to call with 'the plan'. Got a call around 8:30 AM that he was 15 minutes away with the part. Called Tony and told him the repair guy would be here in 15 minutes and he said he would be right home. Tony showed up a little before the repair guy. Took about 1 and a half hours to put a new control panel on the furnace and get it working. It felt so good to feel heat coming out of the vents. Now the fun begins, the price. The repair guy goes to his van and takes about 10 minutes to write up the bill before returning to the house to tell us the total is $1025.00. Tony and I already settled on what would be fair and we told him our demands for the bill to be reduced. I figured it would be fair to pay for an hour on Sunday ($196), two hours today ($192), and the cost of the part ($300). Of course their total included drive time for the guy to come here yesterday ( 2 hours total ) and drive time for the guy to go get the part today ( 1 hour). Tony kept telling the guy he would pay cash if he comes back in the house with a fair total. I kept telling the guy if he doesn't come back with a fair total cost I would write him a check for what I thought was fair and the company can sue me for the rest. I also added that I own the house and am on social security so good luck winning in court to get more money from me. Guess Tony and I played good cop bad cop. The furnace repair guy came back in the house with a total cost for the repair of $750.00. Tony paid him cash. Jeez, $750 for a repair on a less than 5 year old furnace. Just money out the window. I could get a dogs teeth cleaned for that amount of money. After Tony paid the guy he admitted telling people the total cost is always the worst part of his job and he hates that part. Today's guy was much nicer than yesterday and he seemed very sympathetic towards how much the total cost adds up to. He got on his way, Tony went back to work. I then did a little shoveling of the heavy icy snow outside as it continued to snow. It snowed lightly all day today and suppose to continue through tomorrow. I have had enough of winter. Took a much needed two hour nap. Making a frozen lasagna, garlic bread and salad for dinner tonight. Will most likely settle in for the night after dinner and watch the CBS line up on TV, DVR'ing Harry's Law and Castle for later viewing. Tomorrow I will have to leave the house and get something done since I got nothing done today with the furnace repair. So nice to feel heat coming out of the vents, oh, I think I said that once already.