Confessions of a (Temporarily) Husband-and-Toddler-Free Woman

For the last 48-60 hours, I have been completely alone in my house (well, aside from the four-legged creatures). Alone as in, no husband and no toddler. Why, you ask? Well, a few reasons... Paul is on a work trip to California (lucky jerk) for the week, so that explains his absence. My in-laws graciously offered to help with childcare while he's gone, and even went so far as to ask if they could keep Nathan for a couple of days. The original plan was for them to watch him Tuesday, keep him Tuesday night, and watch him until I was done with work on Wednesday...

Tuesday night I got home from work, rather excited for a responsibility-free evening at home all to myself. I had big plans to catch up on guilty-pleasure TV, eat whatever I wanted without having to also feed a two year-old, and peruse a long-neglected pile of magazines while sipping a glass of wine before bed. I even celebrated my evening of freedom by fitting in a workout BEFORE 9 pm (woohoo!). I was planning to work from home on Wednesday (which I do a couple days a week anyway), which meant I could go to bed later if I wanted and sleep in a bit without having to get Nathan up and fed and ready for daycare in time to start my workday.

Around 11 pm (after my second glass of wine... oops!), I was all ready to settle into bed and drift off to sleep. I called Paul to chat for a few minutes and say good night, then turned off the lamp. That's when I noticed the thermostat in the hallway was glowing brightly. We recently had one of those fancy, flat-screen, tablet-like ones installed when we upgraded our furnace and AC system during the renovations. I don't really know how to use it, but it's hooked up to WIFI and displays the weather and indoor stats and all kinds of random stuff. It's on the wall in the hallway just outside our bedroom, so the glow was sort of blinding. I groaned and dragged myself out of bed, fumbled around for my glasses, and went to see what it was doing.

ERROR CODE: 223. Heat issue - Indoor. That's what it said. Paul had mentioned that we were due to change the filter on it, so I figured that was probably what it meant. I poked around on the screen some, made the message go away, and went back to bed. Two minutes later, it started glowing again. Same message. I sighed and tried to locate the settings menu, hoping I could somehow turn off the error alerts so it wouldn't glow on me all night. That's when I noticed that the symbol that usually appears when the heat is running was there, but the heat definitely wasn't running. And the temperature was a couple of degrees below where it's set to maintain. I became vaguely worried that something was wrong, but it was late, I'd had 2 glasses of wine, and I just wanted to sleep.

I cleared the error message, closed my bedroom door partially so I couldn't see the screen, and went to bed. Yesterday morning, I woke up FREEZING with one of the cats (who was also apparently cold) curled up on my head. The house was 55 degrees! There were like, 50 error message on the thermostat screen. Several #223 messages and a #38 that said "unable to heat when requested". Having slept later than usual, I was disoriented and in need of coffee. And also very irritated. We literally just spent thousands of dollars having a whole new system installed in November because the previous system was no longer working. I started the coffee and went in search of the phone number for the service company. Thankfully, we signed up for the total protection plan/warranty (or whatever it's called) that includes guaranteed service and coverage for repairs, etc.

They company said a technician would be out between 10-2. I layered on the sweats and hunkered down under a blanket to try to work. Thank goodness it wasn't one of the super frigid days we've had so far this winter! Nevertheless, I was pretty chilled and glad to see the technician when he arrived around noon. He concluded it was a motor that failed (seriously!?) and a new one was needed. Of course, he didn't actually have one in his truck (why would you send a service tech with replacement parts?), but said he would request one and could come back the following day (today) to install it. That's when I got upset. We had been told as part of our plan purchase we would be put up in a hotel if they were unable to fix the situation the same day. As soon as I mentioned this, he said he's see if they could come back later in the evening instead. It wasn't great but at least it would be the same day.

At this point, I texted my in-laws to see if they could possibly keep Nathan another night. Even if they came earlier in the evening, I was worried it would be too close to his bedtime and the house was much too cold for him. Thankfully they were happy to help out again, although I was starting to miss my little man. My relaxing, peaceful day working at home was turning into a frustrating and chilly nightmare, and I just wanted to bring my son home. Long story short, the part was delivered yesterday afternoon and the technician came back later to install it. I finally had heat again yesterday evening. I did go over to my in-laws to hang out with Nathan a bit (and to thaw myself out while the house heated up). Unfortunately, he got really upset when I left to go run the errands I hadn't been able to do earlier while sitting around waiting on the technician and part to arrive. Listening to your son screaming "Mommy, mommy, mommy!" as you leave him for an unplanned night away after a stressful day is really crummy :(

The house was finally warm by the time I went to bed last night though, so at least the new part is working. And it was all covered under the warranty so we didn't have to pay a dime. So now here it is Thursday, and I'm still home by myself. I had asked my in-laws to drop Nathan off at daycare this morning since I thought I would be going into the office. Except I woke up sick. I thought about just working from home again, but my work laptop suddenly decided it wouldn't connect to my internet this morning so... I gave up and told my boss I was taking a sick day.

So what does a wife/mother with no husband/son do during an unexpectedly long stretch of time at home alone? So far I have:

• Worn pajamas all day.
• Not showered in 3 days (I did take a leisurely bath - complete with a scented bath bomb - but haven't washed my hair!).
• Watched an episode of Extreme Weight Loss, State of Affairs (my newest TV addiction), and parts of NCIS and L&O SVU marathons.
• Eaten whatever I want whenever I want, including popcorn for dinner one night.
• Consumed 3/4 of a bottle of wine.
• Done a 30-minute yoga DVD.
• Wandered aimlessly around the grocery store while hungry, which resulted in the purchase of things like a jar of sundried-tomato pesto and whipped peanut butter.
• Missed my hubby and my silly little boy terribly.
• Concluded that as much as I want/crave some alone time every now and then, I wouldn't trade this life I have now for the one I used to have as a single lady!