Snow Business

When we moved to Cleveland we heard about a phenomenon the locals call "lake effect snow". Having grown up in Ohio, I was unafraid of snow and had survived my share of nasty winters. However, I am now experiencing my very first Cleveland winter and am beginning to understand this "lake effect" thing. What happens is that all of the water in Lake Erie evaporates at once, becomes snowflakes and relocates itself on your driveway. If you drive to Lake Erie right now, all you will find is a mountain of salt... unless they've already used it all on the roads. In this first week and a half of January we have had no less than 2 feet of snow and Marc has shoveled the driveway more than 20 times.
All of this snow means cloudy skies and while the human population may be suffering from Seasonal Affective Disorder, it seems that this "lake effect" business also has an impact on vehicles and major appliances. Last Sunday our heater decided that our house did not need to be heated above around 50 degrees. The general opinion was that the heater was having a problem with a fan limit switch. The limit switch senses when the temperature drops too low and then tells the fan to turn on and blow warm air into the house. The limit switch can also turn off the fans and burners if it senses the furnace overheating. Our furnace seemed to believe that it was overheating and kept turning itself off. In other words- our furnace was having delusions. We looked for a good furnace psychologist, but they are hard to come by on a Sunday night. Marc was working nights at the hospital all week, so I decided to take the boys and bail on our delusional furnace in favor of my parents' house whose furnace is mentally sound. We drove late at night going 30 miles per hour on the freeway for the first third of the trip. Around Columbus, the van's heater also decided to malfunction. Not only did it not heat, but blew blasts of icy cold air while the temperature gauge alternately spiked and lowered. Apparently all of this drama was caused by a bubble in the coolant system. My van had Irritable Bowel Syndrome. We eventually arrived safely at my parents' house and our amazing landlord had the furnace replaced with a more stable individual by Tuesday. The Furnace Repair Guy interviewed the water heater while he was at our house and discovered that it too was about to go off the deep end so Mister Water Heater was replaced on Wednesday.
Lest you think the Cleveland winters are all bad, we are enjoying playing in the snow and sledding. We also have some amazing icicles. We'd love to have visitors to enjoy the snow with us and our new furnace has even agreed to start heating the guest room. You won't even need an electric blanket.