The Sleep of the Damned

That would adequately describe our experience last night. Around 9:00 we noticed that our house seemed colder than normal, and when we checked the radiators around the house we were delighted to discover that none of them were hot, even though the temperature in the house was dropping. So Cody and I trudged downstairs to our almost frozen basement to check out our furnace. The pilot light had burnt out. Before I moved into this house I had no idea about gas and pilot lights or that fact that you would call a plumber to come fix your furnace- who would have thunk it. So Cody called one of his friends, who had lit pilot lights many a times, and got detailed instructions on how to do it. I, of course, stood as far away as possible because I was afraid it was going to blow up and someone needed to be conscious to get Claire out of the burning house (I had a plan all worked out in my head). After three unsuccessful tries of keeping the pilot light lit, we knew there was something wrong and we decided to try to get a plumber over as soon as possible, since the temperature was suppose to be in the teens. We tried for two hours to get a hold of anyone who would come in the middle of night, but no one was available (though a few considerate plumbers returned our calls at 3:00 in the morning). So we bundled up our bed with all the blankets we had (including Claire's bedspreads), woke up Claire to put her in our bed, and tried to go to sleep. The biggest kicker of the whole thing was Claire, literally. Apparently when we woke her up, we didn't realize we were waking her up for play time- that's what she thought. For the next two and a half hours she kicked, pulled my hair (its something she has done since birth), sat up, laid down, put her legs on me, etc. No sleep for any of us until about 2:30 (and then you will remember that the kind plumbers woke us up at 3:00 and then again at 5:00). When we woke up this morning, it was cooooooooolllllllddd. Cody got up to let the plumbers in, while Claire and I stayed cuddled in the blankets. An hour later, our furnace was fixed, the plumbers gone, and we wereleft $245 poorer. I would call that the sleep of the damned.