It Belched, Then Went Into A Coma

After yesterday's cold front moved through, it left near zero temperatures in its wake. The house was chilly this morning, but I chalked that up to the cold outside. Until I noticed the heater wasn't kicking on. I went down into the basement for a cursory check of the big gray thing in the corner and noticed the little red warning light was on. (This scene is about as useful and effective as me lifting up the hood of a car if it won't start.) I pushed the reset button (actually, the only button) a couple of times without success of raising the furnace from its slumber.

I called the repair man. He was here within an hour and has diagnosed that it has a bad heat exchanger and we'll need a new furnace. In the process of his testing, the furnace belched out a spew of soot throughout the house and every room was full of oil-scented smoke, and I don't mean patchouli.

Now we're cold and stinky.

Update: The furnace was putting out carbon monoxide and has been red tagged. They're putting in a new one tomorrow at 8 a.m.

Update 2: So I haven't written too much on here about how sick I've been feeling. For the past several months, it has been crappy, getting sick in Boston at blogger weekend back in November and being wiped out in Florida. I mean, last week I was sleeping 16 hours a day.

I thought it was depression, I thought it might be a sinus infection, I thought it might be a kidney stone getting ready to move. All of which it could be but everything just didn't add up. Now I think it may be carbon monoxide poisoning! I go to the doctor tomorrow and I'll have him draw blood to see. Yikes! And I just put a carbon monoxide detector down next to the furnace in November. No wonder I haven't felt like doing jack shit for months.
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