Our bedroom has been rather chilly.  Now stop it right there.  I know what you’re thinking.  Stop or I’ll turn this car around.  Any who, the boiler’s zone that controls heat to the bedrooms has been on the fritz and as a result, when I wake up each morning, frost has formed on the tip of my nose.  Something had to be done, so I picked up the only tool I know how to use for home repairs, the phone.

Calling the HVAC folks, I got the bad news.  “We can be out there next Tuesday.”  Ugh, it’s Thursday.  Tuesday is a long way off, when you have an ice cold bedroom.  So I put on my sleeping cap and headed on down to the boiler room to see if I could fix the boiler myself.  Recognizing that I had only about a ½ percent chance of fixing the situation, I had my doubts, but I also figured that I had very little to lose.  Really, last time I looked in the boiler room there was nothing frightening.  No Freddy Krueger, no hungry rodents, nothing of any concern, just a very warm room and a lot of pipes leading all over the place.

Entering the boiler room, I started feeling the pipes (the one thing I picked up from previous HVAC heater repair visits).  If the pipe is hot, it’s working.  If it’s cold, it’s not.  Finding a cold pipe, I figured that I had found the problem.  Great deduction, Sherlock, now what?

Following the pipe away from the boiler, I found a valve.  Comparing it to the other readily visible valve, it appeared to be turned in the opposite direction.  Well, why not turn it?  What is the worst that could happen?  Don’t worry, my mind filled the void.  Hot water could burst out!  The pipe could explode!  The boiler could completely break!  My stupidity could be confirmed!  A lot of worsts could happen!

The Boiler Valve of Mystery and Unlimited Potential

Unfortunately, however, it is cold and that evening it would get colder.  Cuddling is only effective at warming people to about 5 below zero.  Fact.  Okay, it’s fabricated, but if I did not get this heater fixed, cuddling was unlikely with a spouse trying to figure out why Tuesday is the soonest I could get this fixed.  I had to address it.  I had to fix it now.  Turn the valve!  Turn it now!  It is your only hope!

So I reached up.  I turned the reluctant valve.  And…  nothing much happened.  No noise.  No angels descending from above.  No sudden heating of the bedroom.  Defeated, I slunk off to Office Max to purchase some ink for our computer printer.  Fact.

Heading upstairs later in the day, I found something miraculous had happened.  The bedroom appeared to have heated up.  Now, stop it!  I warned you.  Enough of those thoughts or I will turn this car around right now.  I promise I will.  Any who, perhaps the valve did the trick.  Perhaps, I was just lucky.  Who cares?  I would keep Tuesday’s appointment, as a safety net, but for today, for tonight, the bedroom would be hot.  That does it!  I’m turning around.