10/28/2007 - Howling Thermostat
Posted in Unspecified
When your thermostat starts screaming, look for trouble! No, seriously! My thermostat made an alarm-like sound for over 10 hours so loud that my mother called me at work, “Lydia, we have an emergency!”
Following my emergency intervention recommendations, my mother had to sit outside with her hearing aids out until I landed in front of the house, thanking God that I didn’t have an accident and for the green lights all the way home. To my relief, it was not the smoke alarm… but the THERMOSTAT. I called the company that just installed the new thermostat " they advised to take the battery out, but the sound didn’t stop. I called the manufacturer, and heard a sobering comment, “Thermostats do not have a sound card, it is not a CD player or an i-Pod. They do not make a sound.” Here I am, a former engineer, listening in horror to the device that is not designed to make a single sound, thinking, “Those guys probably think that I am blond…”
“Ma-am, can you take the front panel out? Do you see several wires? Cut out the red one with the letters “HR”.
“I’d rather suffer the noise... If I do that and the sound stops, you will never believe that the thermostat could make a sound as loud as this one.
“Do not worry! We believe you, we can hear it now!”
“Oh, no! I’d rather invite a middle class, middle aged, white American man to cut the wire, but only after he first hears with his own ears that the sound does come out of the thermostat even without a sound card, as you said.”
I called Scott to come and help, but after he took the front panel out and cut the red wire, the sound didn’t stop. I left the dining room because I couldn’t tolerate the squeaking sound any longer. I almost sensed that it was an alien creature inside that wall.
By the time I came back, I found Scott staring at the hole in the wall with wires sticking out.
The loud sound continued coming this time out of the hole in the wall. Scott’s eyes expressed madness, frustration, and almost horror.
“What else could produce this sound?” Scott went downstairs and found the old security system in the basement. He unplugged it, but the sound still didn’t stop. That made Scott sweat. “This is really weird,” he thought and decided to try one more thing. As soon as Scott removed the backup battery, the sound stopped.
This story made me thinking about how much of old stuff we keep inside of ourselves " just like in old houses. We think that we dealt with the old problem or addiction and comfort ourselves by not having any alarm, thinking “God set me free…” We are pleased because we see the results of our faith: “For goodness sake,” we think, “we pray and attend the church, we even pledge! God has to be faithful to His promise!”
Any relationship is double sided. Yes, we are free by the grace of God, but if we do not perform a regular check-up of the whole system, we are looking for trouble. One day God will wake us up to the sound of the alarm coming out of a very unexpected place: it could be a rude response of our own child or weeping of a spouse; addiction, divorce " signs of hidden diseases. Peaceful silence shouldn’t deceive - one day the old problem will get re-activated for no reason, and we will wake up to the clear signs of emergency that could be avoided.
God set up a security system for each of us and when the battery gets old it needs to be replaced to make the unit work. The battery can be restored by our faith. Come to worship, pray, recharge your batteries. Be safe.
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About Me
Everywhere I go I notice things that need to be changed. Helping others to clean their lives, I clean mine. Life sometimes gets messy - I am in the cleaning business for life. I can't help it! Have something to clean?
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