Where is spring?

On Tuesday night we noticed a burning smell in the bedrooms.  Not fire burning, more rubber burning.  We suspected it was coming from the air vents - we have an HVAC system that blows hot air in winter and cold air in summer.

A few hours later I noticed the temperature was lower than we had the thermostat set to, and realized I hadn't heard any air blowing for a while.  A quick examination concluded the fan was kaput!  

That was around 11pm.  Scott called our HVAC company, owned by friends of ours, and left a message.  We got a call back shortly after and they said they'd be over at noon Wednesday.  It was fairly mild that night so we brought the kids in with us and our little space heater (fan heater in the UK) and went to sleep.

Wednesday came and of course the part that is broken has a 24-48hour delivery time.  We have a great HVAC system, but that means nothing when it's down!

Did I mention that Wednesday night and Thursday were forecast as the worst storm of this already ridiculous winter?  It was, and the temperatures are dropping in to the 20s.  Scott rounded up a number of space heaters from friends and family to get us through it, as long as we can stand it!

Now this is the really cool/weird thing... On Tuesday evening, while the heater died, Scott and I were working on a project.  We were making a diagram of our electrical panel - it was never labelled and we wanted to know what is what for each breaker.  We got that all figured out.  Why is it cool?  Well, space heaters use a lot of power, and if we plug them in on a busy circuit, like the fridges or the microwave and oven it could trip the breaker!  So, we have been able to plug in several heaters, all on different circuits in the rooms we need them!

So, it's Thursday morning, school is closed and we are about 1" into the 5-8" accumulation.  Driving in to the office with it only getting worse seems dangerous, and I don't think I can focus on working from home with the kids and cold!  So, wasting a vacation day seems like the only option.  As for staying warm, well, the living room and bathroom have heat, as well as our room.  

I think I'm going to use the time to clean the house and do laundry, and all the moving around should keep me warm!  I wonder if the kids will be okay watching TV all day wrapped in blankets?!