Parenting Teens

…yes. Alaska. I’m sure I’ve mentioned it here or there, that yes, I live in the coldest state in the nation, especially during the past two weeks. In fact, a friend on the East coast told me that their weatherman said that they had no cause to bitch about the cold, as they didn’t live here in the past couple weeks. Make no mistake, ya’ll - when we say it was cold? It was FRIGID COLD. We’ve spent the past 2 weeks huddling together next to heaters and under blankets as the temperatures in our area hovered between -25F and -34F.

Yes. Thirty-four degrees below zero. As in REALLY FREAKING COLD.

Then, at about 2 am yesterday morning, I was just heading to bed and I heard a loud SNAP in the garage, and shortly thereafter realized that I hadn’t heard the heaters click on for a long time. Too long. And it was getting colder in the house. So I went out to check the furnace, and sure enough, there was pressure billowing out of the release valve, and absolutely no hot water going through the pipes, which means… you guessed it. Zero Heat.

So, I did what every good mama does. I went out to the boy’s room to be sure he had heat - which he did. His little furnace is a separate unit. I warned him I might have to send the girls out, then made sure they were asleep. Then I checked the time, and opted to try and wait it out until Papa and Nana were closer to their normal wake up time. When the Pup started to look chilly, I gathered her and every blanket in sight (cept the one I was using, of course!) and got her to the couch, bundled and warm where she went back to sleep. Then I told The Girl - who would like to be called “Peppermist” from now on, and no, I don’t know why - to go to the manspace/boy’s room.

She, in her typical Teenager Fashion, ignored me.
Three times.
Inorite?!

So I let her suffer. I figured if she got cold enough she’d get up and move. HA! Never underestimate the powers of a sleeping teenager! She did NOT move, but insisted she wasn’t THAT cold. Whatever. Maybe it was the name change that made her more stubborn?!

So anyway, I bundled up in my blankets, and messed around online, discovering how to type with gloves on, and watched the clock until I knew Papa and Nana wouldn’t grump about being woken up too early. I called at 5:45am, and sent the girls down to nap on their couch and get good and warm before they went to school, then got the boy off, all while calling the emergency numbers for heating and plumbing places that had a - turned off their emergency lines or 2 - didn’t put a time they’d open on their answering machines.

*mutter*

So I got the name of an all around handiman kinda guy (though he didn’t do cars, darnitall, as my car has no heat either!) and he answered right away. He was at my house by 8:45am, bout which time it was down to a bracing 42 degrees INSIDE my house. Yes, that mummy of comforters muttering cursewords you heard about was indeed me.

Three hours into it, discovering there was 1 - a leak and 2 - it was low on water and 3- every pipe along the garage wall had frozen, he was just on his way inside to tell me he couldn’t do anything about it and he was at a loss, when it FINALLY broke through! He told me “You are the luckiest woman on the face of the earth!” to which I replied “inorite?!” So we finally have heat, and it’s above 60 in my house again, and a virtual heat wave outside at just -2F. He’ll be back next week to finish the repairs, which will cost me another $500 or so, but it’s a small price to pay to be warm.

So why do I live here again?! I cling to the idea that it is a great place to raise kids… though this week? My hold may be slipping…