Innocent Fingers

It started snowing in the afternoon and snowed sporadically through the night.
I went bed last night shivering cold, even my down quilt plus extra afghans, atop could not make me feel any warmer. Teeth chattering too cold to get out of bed, to check the heat thermostat. Thought I was coming down the flu or had food poisoning but finally I fell asleep, to awaken at midnight, seemingly even more colder than I was, when I had fallen asleep. Staggering out of bed I check the thermostat. I crank the thermostat to the highest heat source. All the heat registers, blow down from the ceiling. If there was any moisture in the air it would have turned to ice crystals, the forced air was so cold. Checked the thermostat it was stuck on air conditioner symbol and would not move to the heat source symbol.

Unknown to me, my little grand daughter, went into my laundry room, where the gas water heater is. The heat system is rigged up with the gas water heater.
She had turned the water tank to just above off and pulled some wires out, of the unit, which control the furnace part of this system.

Called my plumber in the morning whom used to be my next door neighbor along time ago. He had two little boys, 3 and 4 years old. Guess who arrived to fix water tank? The youngest boy. I was so surprised to see the youngster of days gone by, now a young man. A licensed trained plumber following his dad's footsteps in the working world. He told me his older brother got a job in Alberta working on the oil rigs. His dad delivered the new hot water tank. We chatted about old times, both our young families moved away and we lost contact.

I don't know what the price will be for the replaced water heater, plus 6 1/2 hours labour, when he left he sad his dad would send me the bill. Great, I got heat but at what cost? One thing that is priceless, was to see such an ambitious young man, that little boy turned out to be!