daisy_knotwise let me know that Katie had distinguished herself by turning off the air conditioner at the switch in the basement. It's the same switch that she previously used to turn off the furnace. But the good news was that Gretchen had detected the problem when the house started to feel warm and had gone downstairs and turned the switch back on, so we had a working air conditioner by the time I got home.I got up early this morning to go to work, as Gretchen has an appointment to have her blood drawn and Katie has an appointment to have her stitches out. I turned on the shower to heat up while I took my morning regimen of pills, then stepped in to discover that things were not very warm. I turned the handle all the way to hot and got sort of lukewarm, suggesting to me that there was a problem with the hot water heater and I was now working with fossil hot water -- that is, whatever heat was left in the tank.
I went downstairs after showering and getting dressed and took a look at the heater. The status light wasn't blinking, which I took as a bad sign. And the control knob on the front was distinctly not at the right setting. I decided to call the warranty number on the tank. While I was talking to the fellow there, I realized that the fact that the light wasn't flashing simply meant the pilot was out. Which would go along with the fact that the knob had been twisted to the off position.
So I thanked him, hung up the phone, and followed the procedure on the side of the tank to relight the pilot.
Whoosh! And once again, men make fire.
The water was probably not very warm by the time Gretchen needed to take her shower.
But it was progress.
Unfortunately, I don't know of any good way to Katie-proof these knobs and switches.
She and I are going to have a discussion later. *sigh*
