March 15, 2023

Ides of March indeed.

Gave in after many phone calls and allowed the Champion people out to do a “yearly inspection” of my furnace– they did one in September, the furnace was installed new last Ash Wednesday. I left soon after the technician did, and when I returned after ASC rehearsal, the house was at 60 degrees and the furnace unresponsive. They advertise “emergency service” but of course do not provide it. I drove to a motel up Merrimon, checked in, but was so appalled by the room and the circumstance that I came home and decided to tough it out. Phoned twice again, and was told a worker would call at 7:30. It is now 9 and no call. They come out, destroy a furnace that was working just fine, then dodge my calls. The level of rage in me just now cannot be healthy. 

The only thing I actually did in the motel room was look into the mirror. My face was covered in stubble, and patches of dry skin. I looked homeless. 

Accountant calls, though, to tell me how much taxes I owe (too much, though 1/3 of last year). Wonderful day already.

Evening: Tim the furnace man arrives and tinkers, rewiring some things that looked askew, replacing  thingamajigs whose something had worn off. In any case the furnace works now. I observe to the page before me that my furnace (just a year old now) went out on the two coldest nights of the winter. Causation or correlation? 

Went to pay my taxes and my preparer, and had already arrived in Biltmore when I realized I’d left my checkbook home.