Long, Cold, Dark Night

My heat is currently out.

How did this happen?

Well, earlier this week, my smoke alarm started chirping. It's hardwired into the electricity here, so I figured it was just the backup battery wanting to be replaced. I'm blessed with very high ceilings, and at 1:30 in the morning, I was unable to do anything about it, so I closed my bedroom door, put in earplugs, and tried to sleep.

Eventually, I woke back up just before four in the morning. It was louder and I was a bit confused. Then I realized someone was pounding on my front door. I was somewhat delighted, because I figured my smoke alarm had bothered one of my neighbors enough to have them come over. I was delighted because this meant I could ask them to help me get it to shut off already.

It was not my neighbor. (A side note here: I honestly do not know the name of a single one of my neighbors, so that would've been an awkward conversation no matter which neighbor it was.)

It was a nice firefighter from the FDNY.

All of the fire alarms in the building, including the ones in the hallway that automatically call the FDNY, were going off.

They came into my apartment to look for a fire. Apparently, they thought it could be an electrical fire in the walls. If you ever wonder what it looks like when firefighters use their cool tools to look at your walls to decide if there is hidden fire, well, wait until they show up at your apartment. I can't explain it.

I generally feel that leggings are not pants, for the record. One should not wear leggings in public. I happened to be sleeping in leggings that night though, and I answered the door in leggings and a sweatshirt. At first I felt kind of awkward about it, but then I figured I was not the least decent person the firefighters had seen this week.

Lots of my neighbors were out in the hall. It was loud and crazy and there were firefighters going up and down the stairs for about an hour. Eventually, they decided the problem was in the basement; the new boiler that had been installed had suffered a major malfunction, somewhat exploding and melting a substantial portion of the basement. Yeehaw! So that explained the fire alarms and sounds. The NYPD showed up, and then so did the super. It was a whole party. They turned off the boiler and everything down in the basement, which meant that I would keep my electricity and gas but no longer have heat and hot water.

But we were all safe, and after exchanging first names with some neighbors, we all went back to bed.

I have forgotten all of those neighbors' names, for the record.

And my heat hasn't been restored. It's about 40 degrees in my apartment. It's like a really long, really unpleasant camping trip.

Additionally, we're in the middle of a really ugly storm in New York. It's in the single digits, with serious wind bringing the wind chill well below zero.

And in the middle of all of this, I discovered a new mouse in my kitchen. Apparently, it's a really hearty mouse, since it's like a refrigerator in here.

So that's how my new year is going.

How about you?