There's cold comfort indeed at my dwelling. Since last Saturday, I have had no heating. The heater in my apartment broke down sometime on Saturday night and despite my daily calls to the main office, they have not fixed it. The night it broke down, I called their emergency service and a maintenance man arrived with a space heater to lend me. Of course, it was a holiday weekend so no one was going to do any work. But since the weekend there has been, as far as I can see, no action. I am not sure whether the rest of the building has heat, but I don't hear the heaters in the other apartments switching on or off as I usually do. The management says that no one has complained of heat problems except me. They told me that the maintenance man had come into my apartment while I was away at work, and he had fixed it. But when I tried to turn the heater on, there was some engine noise but nothing happened, and it emitted no hot air, or any air at all, and then the engine noise stopped too. Paradoxically, when I turn on the air conditioner (as if I needed that) it works and cold air comes out.

Right now it is sort of mild out so the chill doesn't bother me too much, but if there is another winter cold snap, I will not be happy. This is the first time this heater has ever broken down; usually it is very dependable. In my previous dwelling back in Cambridge, Massachusetts, I lived with a rickety gas heater built out of an ancient coal stove, which was located right under my bed. When that thing went on, it made a booming whoosh that used to wake me up. Sort of a controlled gas explosion. The pilot light for this contraption was always going out, especially on cold wet nights, so that sometimes I had to live with chill until the maintenance could come and re-light it. Occasionally I was able to go down into the dusty dark basement and re-light it myself, but I needed a match on a long spindle to reach the pilot light. This was not too safe an operation so I usually left it for the experts. I am amazed that my old house in Cambridge has not gone up in a blast of gas.

For all I know, a punked-out pilot light may be the only thing wrong with my current furnace, which is a much safer and more modern gas heater. Fortunately, no gas is escaping. This furnace is fairly new and was only installed about ten years ago. I am not trying anything by myself. There is dust everywhere and when the heater did go on, it agitated a large amount of "particulate matter" all over my apartment. I have lived here for fifteen years, believe it or not. Depending on my financial situation as 2007 progresses, I am hoping to move out of this place to something larger and a bit more modern.

Meanwhile I live the life of the artist in the unheated garret, lacking only a masterpiece or two to justify my not-so-romantic period of modest discomfort.

Posted at 3:16 am | link