I can’t believe it! I have NO HEAT! The Inn felt cool, but I had turned down the temperature to 58 before I left for L.A., but the thermostat said 50. 50!! Yikes! That is way too cool. So I jacked up the heat to 65 and started getting things ready for our guests that would be arriving that afternoon.  The fireplace in the dining room was working but the furnace had not kicked on. That was strange. I went downstairs to check on it. That metal behemoth in the middle of my basement was stone cold. That couldn’t be. I had 239 gallons of oil delivered yesterday so that wasn’t the problem.

      As I stood staring at the gauges, I decided to flush the tank, just in case. Black gook streamed from the valve followed by water. I added water to raise the level to where it was suppose to be and rechecked all the valves. Everything looked good. I went back upstairs and checked the thermostat. I wondered if a thermostat could go bad.

      Time to call RJ.

      I left the Inn and started down to the “little house.”  RJ was in the doorway with his keys, getting ready to go shopping for supplies. “We have no heat,” I called to him.

     “No heat?”

     “No heat. Forget about going shopping.”

     We went back to the Inn and he started to do the same things I had been doing. Checking the thermostat, checking the furnace, checking the valves, checking the oil tank, circuit breakers. Everything looked good. So why wasn’t this working???

     We called our heating and A/C guy with finally made arrangements for a service man to come out. My biggest fear was that I would need a new boiler.  I had planned to put a new one in next year, and this was a bit earlier than I had planned.  I waited as patiently as I could for the service guy and was thrilled to see his truck pull up to the Inn. “Hi,” he said. “My name is Lou.”

     “Hi. Boy, am I glad to see you.”

     RJ came up the driveway and greeted Lou. “So you are the man of the hour.”

     “Yes, I am.”

     We went inside and he headed straight for the basement and my oil tank. The boiler looked good as did the oil tank.  “Hmm… When was your delivery?” he asked.

     “Yesterday,” RJ replied. “We are on automatic delivery.”

     “I think you may have an air block. Your oil was too low and the boiler was unable to pull the oil.”

     Minutes later, the boiler roared to life. That rumble never sounded so good. Soon the Inn was once again warm and inviting.  Our guests arrived later that afternoon, never knowing that we were rushing around all morning trying to get the boiler working. So goes life at the Inn. J