Incompetent, Crazy, Psychotic, Over-reactive

Personally, I prefer "prepared."  Especially since we're talking about me!  I mean really...

So here's the story:  It got a little chilly here this weekend.  Saturday evening Rodney turned the heat on just to take the chill out of the house.  We went to dinner and when we returned a wall of heat greeted us at the door.  It was so hot inside - like I-could-barely-breathe hot.  So Rodney turned the heat off and played with the thermostat a little.  He turned it all off and opened the windows.  On Sunday, he played with it again.  When he turned the heat on, it would not go off.  I was stripping my clothes off left and right (maybe that was his plan! Hmmmm???)  Then he would turn the air conditioner on (just to see if it worked) and it would not go off!  So I put my clothes back on and shivered.  This went on for several hours.  You know - because trying just once is never enough.  Finally he decided that it was the thermostat and we would need to replace it.  He turned the thermostat to the off position and headed out the door around 5:30 pm.  He had to go to work to help his guys. At 6:15 I noticed that it was getting really hot in the house again.  I checked the thermostat - it was off;  so I checked the vents and they were blowing hot air.  I called Rodney and he told me to turn off the breaker switches that are on the furnace. 

So I turned them off (this pictures was taken later so they are turned back on).  I then waited a little while but it was still hot and hot air was still coming out of the vents.  This didn't sound normal to me, but what do I know about furnaces.  I called my dad and he told me to find the main breaker box and turn the switch for the heater.

I was excited when I realized everything was labeled.  This should be an easy job.  I found one labeled heat pump, so I flipped that baby and felt very domestic.

The only problem was...the furnace was still humming a high pitch sound, the copper pipe going into the furnace was super hot and there was still hot air coming out of the vents.  It was like a very bad nightmare.  How could the furnace still be working after I turned it off at the main circuit?

I quickly called Rodney and told him everything.  He said he would call someone.  20 minutes later I called him back only to find out that he had not called anyone yet.  I yelled at him and accused him of not caring if our house burned down.  I think this is when he realized how psychotic worried I was.  So he made some phone calls while I sat on my steps and cried.  I prayed that we would be safe and that there wouldn't be an explosion.  I closed the doors downstairs, confident that the fire would start in the furnace and maybe I could contain it in the basement hallway.  I then packed up the things that I would definitely not want to be without.  Have you ever truly thought about this.  You should.  It's a very humbling experience, knowing that everything you own is going to be ash in a matter of time.  Here's what I packed:

Are you surprised that I only packed two backpacks?  If you really know me, you shouldn't be.  Here's what's inside:
My laptop with all my pictures on it.

My external hard drive with even more pictures saved on it.

My camera bag, because I would need to take pictures of my house as it burned.  My camera was in the bag, I just needed to take it out to take these pictures.

And my well-worn, much-loved scriptures.  I have nicer looking, newer ones, but these are the ones that I would miss the most, so I grabbed them and shoved them in my computer bag.  I received them for my 8th birthday from my parents and they are the ones I read the most.  I figured as I watched my house burn, I may need some comfort that I could only get from a few verses.  (Like Ephesians 5 where it says wives should love their husbands no matter what - even if they don't care if the house burns down).

Once I finished packing these few things, Shawn asked if he should pack his X-box.  I said "No honey, we won't have a TV to hook it to.  But I could take a picture of it for you to remember it."  He declined my offer and decided to just go play it until it burned up. 

At some point Rodney decided that he need to come home to help his hysterical very prepared wife.  I can't tell you how happy I was to hear the loud rumble of his diesel truck in the driveway.  He came in checked the furnace switches and walked over to the breaker box and flipped a switch.  The furnace stopped humming immediately.  I ran upstairs and there was no longer hot air coming from the vents.  I asked him which switch he flipped...because I knew I flipped the right one!  He showed me that there was another switch labeled "outside unit" that needed to be turned off as well.  WHY DIDN'T HE JUST TELL ME THAT EARLIER????

Today the HVAC man came to fix a relay switch and everything seems to be working just fine.  I guess I won't complain about the $250 bill...it could have been a lot worse!