Saturday, Oct. 6

Up around 7:30 this morning, though I tossed and turned until 1 a.m. Just couldn't get comfortable on this first cold night of the season, even though I was snug under sheet, quilt, and afghan, and I wore socks to bed.

We didn't try to turn the central heat on last night, but this morning when Hubbie switched the thermostat from cool to heat, it didn't come on. Rats! We didn't expect that after dutifully having a safety inspection Thursday. We wondered at the time how efficient the young man, who looked about twelve year old, might be. We should have insisted that he try the thermostat before he left.

Anyway, Hubbie set up a space heater this morning, and then called the heat and air business, which of course has a weekend answering service. He was told the repairman would call before he came out. When enough time had passed without a call, Hubbie bugged the business again.

In the meantime, I skipped my exercises in favor of getting my hair colored. Hubbie did the honors. Funny: I scared the wits out of the cats on my way to the upstairs bathroom. They stared at me, arched their backs a little, and when I spoke, they scattered to the four winds. They didn't recognize my hair, in a matted heap, with dye straying to my forehead; they didn't like the strong odor of the dye; they didn't like the ticking timer I held in my hand. Altogether, I must have looked like a Halloween monster to them.

While I waited the required twenty-five minutes for the dye to act before I went upstairs, Hubbie accompanied Mother to our house. I really thought she'd choose to stay home once she learned that our heater wasn't working. But she'd garbed herself in winter undies, and dressed in several layers, so she wanted to come over.

The repairman finally called to say he'd be here soon. But when 11:30 rolled around, and he still hadn't arrived, we prepared lunch...a cold salmon loaf sandwich, with a side of hot macaroni and cheese, for Mother, split pea soup, with a peanut butter on a slice of bread for me, and pimento cheese sandwich for Hubbie.

Mother headed to the couch for a nap afterward, and Hubbie and I began watching our favorite college football team play a game I'd recorded on DVR. Around 1 p.m., the repairman called again. He was about twenty minutes away.

We stopped the game while he was here. Took him about fifteen minutes to discover the problem, which was that a bare wire had come in contact with a fuse, blowing it. Probably happened while the young man was working Thursday, and he didn't notice it. Anyway, we now have heat, thank goodness. No charge for this call, of course.

We resumed watching our game after the repairman left, and were thrilled when our team won this do-or-die contest.

Following the game, Hubbie and I went to the WDCS for a few groceries, particularly hamburger buns for tonight's supper. Gee Whiz, it was cold outside. I was glad I grabbed a jacket with a thick fleece lining that I bought at the WDCS for $6 at the end of the season last year. I noticed today that a rack of this same style jacket is now priced at $18.96.

It was after 4 p.m. by the time we got back home. Mother was still on the couch, but was awake. I started supper right away. Before 5 p.m., we sat down to a choice of hamburgers with cheese, or turkey burgers with cheese, plus leftover macaroni and cheese. Very cheesy supper, but it tasted good.

After that, we watched a couple of old episodes of "Matlock" mysteries, and then Hubbie accompanied Mother to her house. He commented when he returned that a large bird of some sort, feeding on corn that had dropped to ground from the squirrel feeder, was startled by their approach, and flew low to ground behind Mother's house, and then out across the highway. It was so dusky that Hubbie couldn't tell what sort of bird it was...looked like it might have been a duck, or a road runner.

TV fare tonight included a Lifetime channel movie..."Abduction: the Carlina White Story," based on the true case of a baby being abducted from a hospital. At twenty-three, she solved her own abduction case, but things weren't smooth-sailing after that.