Everything was ready.
The furniture had been pushed aside to make room for our sleeping bags, the snacks and soda were in the fridge, and the movies had been ordered.
I was having a sleepover at my house with three of my best friends. The big event had been on our calendars for weeks and the excitement was building. But Murphy’s Law, it seemed, had prevailed – whatever could go wrong – did! The furnace had quit with no warning whatsoever. I panicked, of course. Who could come this late on a Friday afternoon to fix it? I found a number to call for an HVAC technician and, thankfully, he was able to come within the hour. The problem was – he came at quite a cost. But what choice did I have? Once the technician arrived, he went to the basement and started assessing the cause. I wanted to stand next to him and tell him to hurry, but I forced myself to stay out of his way. It didn’t take long for him detect what was causing the furnace to quit. He said that since I had an induced draft furnace, an intermittent pilot ignites the burner gas with a high voltage spark only when the thermostat calls for heat. The intermittent pilot flame goes out after the heating cycle and remains off until the next time the thermostat calls for heat. What had happened was that the ignitor had cracked and needed to be replaced. I was so glad that it was just a matter of replacing a part, which – thankfully, he had in his truck. In no time, the furnace was running again and the house slowly started warming up – just in time for the sleepover.