Around 2 a.m., the furnace gave a pitiful squeal that woke us up. “Sounds like the furnace could use some oil,” I told my husband, and he agreed. We promptly fell back asleep.

Of COURSE it wasn’t that simple. The house was 58 degrees and no twirling of the thermostat would improve things. It was along the lines of, perhaps a new motor will be necessary. A friend with the expertise was prompt in returning the early a.m. call, only to say he was out of town. One local company found their on-call guy wouldn’t return calls, and finally suggested we try someone else. Around noon our third choice arrived and confirmed yep, a new motor would be in order.

Does anyone ever want to spend money on things like new furnace motors? Probably not. I am trying to take a view of gratitude, that I have a roof over my head, heat most of the time and not a ton of money, but enough so that when things do go wrong I know they can be taken care of.

And believe me, after being told the motor should have been oiled regularly and wasn’t, I’ll be calling in the fall for a checkup and cleaning.<P>

<em>This post originally appeared on <a title=”Midland Daily News” href=”http://www.ourmidland.com/”>ourMidland.com</a&gt;, the online home of the Midland (MI) Daily News. Republished with permission.</em>