Crisis Averted, Cap'n
It occurred to me, once I was no longer shivering unhappily in front of my heater, that the little red light has been blinking this time, whereas on previous occasions it has been a sustained glare of hunger for fuel. Perhaps, I mused, the kerosene had run out at the most inopportune time possible yesterday, giving the water in the tank the chance to freeze while I slept (last night was bitterly cold, if the sheet of ice in my bathtub and the frozen state of my soap are any indications). But you will all be pleased to hear that I resisted the urge to try opening up the water heater in the ten minutes before I left for work, opting instead to pass news of my plight on to the JTE at Okoppe.
I like the JTE at Okoppe. In fact, I like everything at Okoppe. If my job involved only it and none of Oma JHS, I most likely would have recontracted and gritted my teeth through another year with the BoE. My lack of teaching aptitude matters little when the kids are all friendly and well-behaved. Anyway, since Okoppe is my happy place, I figured all the happy joy-joy love light radiating from it would ease me through the task of actually getting something out of the BoE.
Well, it did. In a rather roundabout way.
See, somewhere in the chain of information, a link spontaneously turned from "water heater" into "room heater." (Communication with the Board is a lot like playing telephone, only the results are less "Ha, ha, 'I wear a monkey on my corncob'!" and more "If you people don't sort this out right now, I'm going to offer a plunger full of incense to the plumbing gods and try fixing the damn thing myself.") By the time the error was discovered, my supervisor had already left for the day to do something officiousal in Mutsu. In an uncharacteristic move, she had gone ahead and called someone to go out to my house after school and fix rather the wrong sort of heater.
Well, the guy offered to take a look at the water heater, opened it up, read the troubleshooting guide inside, and fiddled in accordance with the instructions. I realized that the number "4" the unit was displaying was not just my fervently desired temperature setting-- the flashing light made it an error code, too. Push the right internal button, and tada! Hot water! I thanked him profusely and noted the location of the built-in guide for future reference, then showed him that the "5" now being displayed was just how hot I wanted my water and not the machine throwing him a curveball. Thanks, repair guy!
And now, I shall go stand under the showerhead with the hot water on full blast for half an hour or so. Ahhhhh. Sweet modern hygiene.
In less wet news, lilycascade? Your icon, madam:
I shall expect posting from you. :)
I like the JTE at Okoppe. In fact, I like everything at Okoppe. If my job involved only it and none of Oma JHS, I most likely would have recontracted and gritted my teeth through another year with the BoE. My lack of teaching aptitude matters little when the kids are all friendly and well-behaved. Anyway, since Okoppe is my happy place, I figured all the happy joy-joy love light radiating from it would ease me through the task of actually getting something out of the BoE.
Well, it did. In a rather roundabout way.
See, somewhere in the chain of information, a link spontaneously turned from "water heater" into "room heater." (Communication with the Board is a lot like playing telephone, only the results are less "Ha, ha, 'I wear a monkey on my corncob'!" and more "If you people don't sort this out right now, I'm going to offer a plunger full of incense to the plumbing gods and try fixing the damn thing myself.") By the time the error was discovered, my supervisor had already left for the day to do something officiousal in Mutsu. In an uncharacteristic move, she had gone ahead and called someone to go out to my house after school and fix rather the wrong sort of heater.
Well, the guy offered to take a look at the water heater, opened it up, read the troubleshooting guide inside, and fiddled in accordance with the instructions. I realized that the number "4" the unit was displaying was not just my fervently desired temperature setting-- the flashing light made it an error code, too. Push the right internal button, and tada! Hot water! I thanked him profusely and noted the location of the built-in guide for future reference, then showed him that the "5" now being displayed was just how hot I wanted my water and not the machine throwing him a curveball. Thanks, repair guy!
And now, I shall go stand under the showerhead with the hot water on full blast for half an hour or so. Ahhhhh. Sweet modern hygiene.
In less wet news, lilycascade? Your icon, madam:
I shall expect posting from you. :)