Now That’s a Fire!

As much as I enjoy weekends – and I do – there is something about them that is so challenging.

Friday night, as we were sitting in our den to watch the baseball game, it was 63 degrees in the house. That was a little too chilly – as you can imagine – so M and I decided to turn on our gas logs for the first time this season. We’ve had these logs for as long as we’ve been in this house (21 years) and they do a great job of heating up the den and kitchen.

Last year, the pilot light went out at some point and when it was time to light them, we couldn’t seem to make it happen. In the past, M would have been able to do it, but I had to call someone from the gas company to come out and handle it. He told me that the system we had probably wouldn’t last much longer. Well, they are over 20 years old – they were here when we bought the house – so I’m not surprised.

Friday night, M and I were trying to light them and we were having a time. We could get the pilot light lit, but we couldn’t get any farther. The instructions were right there and M spent an inordinate amount of time going over them, to the point I thought he was trying to commit them to memory. I read over them, but I’ll admit – reading instructions is not something I put a lot of effort into. And it’s come back to bite me on more than one occasion.

We never could make the logs get any further than the pilot light coming on, so finally our older son came to the rescue. He sat down, looked at the instructions . . . and in less than two minutes had the gas logs burning.

I should have known this would happen.

Of course, M and I were shocked and amazed at his handiwork and wanted to know what he did that we weren’t doing. He showed us how, per the instructions, we were supposed to hold in the button for an entire minute before you turn it counter-clockwise to start the gas flowing.

Those were the directions I had skimmed over (because I don’t carefully read directions) but what was going on with M? He was the one who kept looking at them and studying them! I think even two years ago, he would have been able to handle it. But not now. I can see how quickly things have progressed with this disease.

I texted my daughter-in-law, as my son was driving back home, to tell her that her husband was the BEST and she agreed that he is the only man she knows that actually reads directions from beginning to end. I’m not sure where he learned it, but I’m very grateful. He saved us from having to buy new gas logs, this year, anyway.

More tomorrow on the rest of the weekend. Let’s just say, it involves the installation of security cameras – and we didn’t kill each other!