Oh, the joys of an old home !!!

I love Fall, the sights , smells and the cooler temperatures. I even love the dark rainy days when the furnace kicks on for the first time, since early Spring , when the temps at night were still cool enough to make the heater kick in just enough to make it comfortable.....In a quiet house ( which I rarely get), the sound of the furnace running and the warm air blowing through the vents, can put me to sleep. It's that white noise of course, but there's just something so relaxing about it, probably similar to what it's like for folks with a fireplace and the sound of the burning wood crackling and hissing.....The same effect ....For me I guess, it brings back memories of when my children were small, and we were in the old Farmhouse....Most days, a nap was Mandatory ...not for me of course, but for the little ones. I spent my mornings cleaning scrubbing, breaking up fights,kissing boo boo's and usually handing out a slight boo boo or two , on little deserving backsides of unruly or defiant imps. But nap time, was my time , to do household chores that were a little hard to accomplish with small children afoot,such as cleaning out the refrigerator or trying to organize or downsize a junk drawer ( kids think you need to keep every little thing !!)I would manage to keep things quiet so they would sleep for at least 45 minutes.....It's a miracle what a decent nap will do for a fussy child who was up at the crack of dawn ...
But....there were those days, in the Fall especially, when the air was nippy enough for our old fuel oil furnace to spit and sputter on and then the blower would start up, and the warm air began to filter through the old ornate cast iron vents in our almost 100 year old Farmhouse.... That sound....On some of those colder , darker days when my list of things accomplished that morning was complete, I would treat myself to some quite time on my couch, wrapped in a blanket, listening to the furnace going and doze off, for just a few minutes of much deserved "rejuvenation"....
On one such day, it was pure bliss, as I lay down on the couch, snuggled all cozy like with a warm comforter wrapped around me...The furnace had just kicked on...I could hear it through the vents, making it's clicking noises and and as the furnace warmed up it also made small almost grunting sounds as the heater box expanded with the rising temperature inside. Ahhh....this was heaven...and then nothing....hmmmmm?? maybe it wasn't as cold in the house as I thought. I unfolded myself from the blanket, went over to the thermostat on the wall and saw that the temperature in the house wasn't freezing but could stand to rise a digit or two especially since the children were napping and I wanted them to stay comfy and warm...So I ever so gently and carefully edged the little needle to the right , not wanting to heat the house up too much, just take the chill off a bit and lay down and listen to the hummmmm of the blower.... There, I thought I heard the familiar "click" of the nozzles opening up in the old fuel oil furnace, allowing the fuel to be ignited by the flame on the igniter....
Ahhhhh, back on the couch, snuggled up, head positioned just right, awaiting the sound of the fan to kick in and lull me into a restful half sleep......
Waiting, waiting, and then, I think I sensed what was going to happen next, much like they say and animal can sense an impending storm or earthquake....
The sound that came from my Basement and shaking and vibration of my house that followed was much like that of a bomb exploding at close range...
Not only did I jump up from my fetal position on the couch as fast as I could, but would have immediately returned to the fetal position, huddled on the floor in a corner, had it not been for the screams of 5 small children and the sound of 10 small feet scurrying and scrambling as fast as their shorts legs could carry them running and pushing each other down the stairway of the old house.... It didn't take me long to figure out what happened, but it took much longer to calm down 5 frightened and shaking little one's.....
The worst of it wasn't over....what followed was something straight out of the movie "A Christmas Story"...In the movie they have an old coal furnace that is the Father's nemesis...Spitting, banging and sputtering it's way through the movie, as the Father struggles to keep it going and running properly... and then the black thick smoke begins to rise from those beautiful old cast iron vents in the wall, much like the ones in my old Farmhouse.....
Well, that is exactly what happened in my home...but, it wasn't coal smoke, it was the "backfire" oily, greasy fumes from an old fuel oil furnace much like an old large diesel engine...... The smoke wasn't just thick and black and falling and resting on every knick knack, picture, curtain and piece of furniture in my freshly cleaned old home....It was greasy, stinky and everywhere. Now it was my turn to cry, and my husbands turn to comfort me as I began to wipe clean and launder almost every last item in my home....So much for a nap and so much for loving my old fuel oil furnace...which by the way was replaced the following year with a new , efficient gas ( well propane) furnace........
Robin