Brrr!

A few days ago my furnace was reluctant to start in the morning after being turned down overnight. A quick off-on got it going. It happened again a couple days later. Yesterday morning it wouldn't start up, no matter what I did.

I called the guy who renovated my bath and basement and he referred me to a heating company. Sorry, the trucks are already out this morning. But I had to teach in the afternoon. Tomorrow? Possible. Call early for the scheduled time.

The house was already down to 59 degrees, so I packed clothes and such and went to the college Wellness Center (I would have called it a fitness center). I tried their exercise bike but couldn't stay on the seat, so walked their exercise track for a half hour. Then on to my primary purpose -- a warm shower in a warm room.

After classes I didn't particularly want or need to go to a cold house, so went to Royal Oak for dinner and movie. Dinner was at an adequate Thai restaurant, but not worth repeating.

The movie was Beasts of the Southern Wild. It is about a six-year-old girl named Hushpuppy in the bayous of Louisiana and told from her point of view -- we don't know what ails her father because he isn't able to explain it to her. At one point she is in a shelter/medical center and concludes that when people are sick they get plugged into the wall.

Much of the story is about the way her community deals with a hurricane and its flooding (which got me wondering how they filmed the flooded countryside). The film makes lots of connections between the storm and calving glaciers associated with climate change. Some of those hunks of glacier contain frozen aurochs, which return to life and do some rampaging. Here, I have a complaint with the movie. I thought aurochs were an extinct breed of cattle (and Wikipedia backs me up) while the creatures in the movie clearly had snouts of swine. This is the only fantasy element in the movie.

I went to see it because the young actress playing Hushpuppy was described as doing an outstanding job for someone her age. Now having seen it I definitely agree. I missed the movie when it first came into theaters. It is back now because it has been nominated for Oscars for Best Actress (Hushpuppy, now the youngest so nominated), Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay.

On home, where the temp had dropped to 53. I was comfortable under my duvet (though I got my sleeping bag out of the basement just in case). This morning it was 51 -- the house must have good insulation. The furnace guy arrived at 8:30. After a while he said "the board" was bad. When I asked what the board did, he gave me one of those "how dense are you?" looks before saying, "It controls the furnace." Not so good at public relations. He went back to the shop and brought a new one. Soon things began to warm up. I'm no longer sitting here wrapped in my sleeping bag, but I still have the parka on and am wearing gloves. I'll probably start unwrapping soon.The temp is now at 67. Cost: $90 for the visit, $180 for the board.