Dark and Loud and Stinky and Spooky

 

As if on queue for Halloween, our house decided to become haunted. Or at least act like it was. First, the boiler started making really scary sounds, like an engine turning over. It started doing that a little bit last spring, and we only had just turned it on--apparently the problem got worse. It sounded dreadful and definitely like we should immediately turn off the system, which is what we did.

Even though we turned it off right away, the basement started to smell like oil. I was downstairs doing a workout so I noticed and got quite uncomfortable (and also a little nauseous). I brought down our air quality monitor (long story, was planning to write about it in a different, future post - just roll with it). It did indeed reflect something gross in the air, since this number is usually in the single digits.

We had someone come out and look at it today and he said that either the top (gray) box or the bottom (black) box is busted. We have to remember to go down there next time it makes that grinding motor sound and figure out which it is, and then he can come by and immediately replace it. So that's good, I guess.

During that same workout, just 10 minutes later, we heard a pop and the lights went out. Some transformer evidently had blown down the block. I guess I'm glad it was a sunny day because this was how I spent the last 20 minutes or so of my workout. At first I was afraid it was related to the boiler, but then I realized that didn't really make sense. Fortunately the power came back within a couple of hours, but I did have to spend 20 minutes in the basement where, the night before, I had seen but failed to kill a spider cricket.

Spooky!

Now let's just hope we can sort out that boiler.