Saturday, January 14, 2012

Morning's Warm Kiss

(Friday) Last night I went to bed quite chilled as a result of the furnace being on the blink.  I awoke early this morning, reluctant to leave the deep warmth of my multitude of blankets that had cocooned me during the cold night.  Knowing that the furnace man cometh at 8:30 a.m. is what eventually coaxed me forth. My effort was rewarded with this startling view of sun bursting forth over the frosty roof tops...



Just peeking up from behind the foreground hills is the tip of Mount Baker in the Cascade Mountain Range of Washington state.  It's always a treat when we can see this mountain from our house.  I'm not sure why.  Maybe because it means that it's a clear day.  Also, it's the most active volcanic peak in the region, after Mount Saint Helens, so that's pretty exciting.




I was also intrigued to see the top of Burnaby Mountain swathed in clouds. It's really not much more than a big hill, though one that would certainly pass for a mountain back in my adopted east coast province of New Brunswick.  Simon Fraser University is located up on top there.  I put in a couple of years studying at that school, with my head pretty much in the clouds the whole time.




Head in the clouds, pipe dreams, Xanadu...you see how my mind works.  Next thing I'll be linking you to an Olivia Newton John video! But no, I'll spare you because I'm feeling warm-hearted. 

And would you like to know why I'm feeling this way? 
It's because the Furnace Repair Man showed up, as promised, with the right stuff, and warmed not only the cockles of our hearts but the whole house as well by fixing the furnace's Thermocoupler. 
Doesn't that sound romantic? 
The Thermocoupler! 
But actually, it's two wires that are destined to break apart every 7 years or so, and when they do, the whole system shuts down, until they get couple counselling from the Furnace Man and then things can start to heat up again.


You could say I've been feeling pretty much in the pink today.
 I hope you are, too!

PS.  As I look out the window tonight (Saturday 12:30 a.m.) it's snowing!

(I can hear you easterners snickering!!!)



17 comments:

  1. fantastic moment for you I suppose, fanstactic pics ...
    thanks a lot xxx

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  2. Oh my stars, the pictures are incredible and I find myself drowning in envy, wishing that I were there.

    So glad that the house, the cockles and everything in between is once again restored to a state of warmth, though I have to admit to a curiosity as to what your next outfit would look like should the furnace repairman fail to show up!

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  3. Beautiful photos of water at sunrise. If I didn't know better I'd say it looks like a lake in New Hampshire. And that mysterious looking Simon Fraser Univ. looks like a space ship. Maybe they did beam you up :) LOL
    Christine

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  4. Karine,
    So nice to "see" you again: Quelle belle surprise! Yes, it was a fantastic moment for me...to see the gorgeous sunrise and to have the heat back on. I truly felt warm all over.

    Audrey,
    I shudder to think what my outfit would have involved if the furnace man hadn't shown up! "Shudder" being the key word. You may feel less envious and less keen on being here when you see today's photos I'm about to post.

    Mystic Meandering Christine,
    At least I'm beaming, if not exactly beamed up. SFU at the end of the 1960s when I was there was full of a lot of spaced-out types, keen to "turn on, tune in, and drop out."

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  5. Never knew furnaces were subject to the seven year itch.

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  6. DCW,
    When the Thermocoupler gets the Seven Year Itch, the Furnaceman Always Rings Twice.

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  7. How amazing a sight, what joy it must be to breath alike.

    Nearly as cold outside as inside of a fridge currently over here. Miss snow much. Please have you all a kind Sunday.

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  8. Such pretty scenery, well worth getting out of bed for I would think!!
    As I look out my window, the sun is blinding me and it's uber hot...almost makes me forget about the shakes. (Got woken with a 5 this morning, around 3am...dammit! I had to get up at 5am anyway to take my real life brother Owen to the airport) Why? Because he's a good (WV) FULAH.

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  9. Wonderful sky shots!

    Hope your furnace is now working.

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  10. What a glorious sight to be greeted with - the mist mountains and technicolor....

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  11. Robert,
    I think our house was colder than inside a fridge while the furnace was broken. I'm surprised to hear that it's so cold in Athens! I hope you are managing to keep cozy.

    Saj,
    I know you wouldn't FULAH big sister with your claim that it's upber hot where you are (it's always uber hot where the Saj is, by her very presence). At least you have good weather to make up for those nasty shakes. Your brother Owen and your other brother Owen...reminds me of a sitcom that used to be on tv.

    ladyfi,
    Yes! The furnace continues to do its thing, for which we are truly grateful.

    Catherine,
    Every morning it's a different version of the same sight when I open the bedroom curtains. I could happily just blog about the changing view but I fear it would soon get old for blog visitors...especially those arriving from more exotic "sights."

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  12. Thank goodness then for the inevitable uncoupling of thermocouplers leading to broken furnaces to get you out of bed at the crack of dawn (Dawn who ? Dawn Treader ?) leading to such lovely images to calm troubled minds all over the world, radiating out tranquility and serenity across cables all over the world... But in the interests of your creature comfort I will heartily wish that those hot wires will continue coupling happily under piles of blankets for the next seven years until they again uncouple inevitably...

    And revelations, revelations in luminous light, of years in school having pipe dreams, couldn't help but wonder what was being smoked in those pipes back in the late sixties/early seventies(?) to give such dreams ???

    And shall we hope that Mount Baker shall stay mounted and not dismount calamitously and come cascading down upon Vancouver at any point in the near geological timeline ? If she were to blow her stack one day would that area be covered in ash or wiped away by pyroclastic flows ??? Ah, so many ticking timebombs all around us... So best to revel in the beauty of the moment, a brief reflection on the mirrored H2O, the most ephemeral of painted colors on strange waters....

    "I've seen a high cairn kissed by holy wind
    Seen a mirror pool cut by golden fins
    Seen alleys where they hide the truth of cities
    The mad whose blessing you must accept without pity

    I've stood in airports guarded glass and chrome
    Walked rifled roads and landmined loam
    Seen a forest in flames right down to the road
    Burned in love till I've seen my heart explode

    You've been leading me
    Beside strange waters

    Across the concrete fields of man
    Sun ray like a camera pans
    Some will run and some will stand
    Everything is bullshit but the open hand

    You've been leading me
    Beside strange waters
    Streams of beautiful lights in the night
    But where is my pastureland in these dark valleys?
    If I loose my grip, will I take flight?

    You've been leading me
    Beside strange waters
    Streams of beautiful lights in the night
    But where is my pastureland in these dark valleys?
    If I loose my grip, will I take flight?"

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  13. Everybody used up all my cracks about thermocouplers and seven year itches darn it. Never mind, that view is awesome. It's wonderful to have a mountain or trees or something natural out the window, but it's freaking awesome to have water. Those reflections, the fog, yet another perfect moment care of Mother Nature. I'm wondering what kind of sounds in that place at this early hour...

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  14. BrOwen,
    "Pyroclastic"? Pyroclastic! What a great word. I have not been familiar with that word but now that I've made its acquaintance, I can see getting quite hot and bothered by it.
    When Mt. Saint Helens' made an ash of itself a few years back, there was quite a bit of fallout out around here...or was that just a pipe dream I had? Memory fades like a mountain in the mist.

    Words from Bruce's canon. From the mouth of Bruce. From the mouth of Bruce's canon. Carrying a resounding, resonating boom boom boom like a heartbeat drumbeat blasting of the mountain peaks as the innermost workings erupt in pyroclastic orginess. Yes, orginess. But then, he leadeth us beside the cool water of his musicality and soothes us with his intricate sound.
    I am burbling. Pyroclastically.

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  15. Stickup,
    The sound at this time of the morning is a train whistle coming across the water from a great distance, rushing sleepy passengers from the boonies into town for their workday. Sometimes there is the sound of an anchor being hauled up from the depths of the water back into a freighter as one or two are often anchored in this view for a few days at a time. From this window, the sound of traffic is not really discernible as it's at the back of the house, away from the street.
    A water view is really quite hypnotic. As are the clouds that come and go, hover and tease...until they get heavy with rain and obliterate the scene.

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  16. Only you could put a romantic edge on a broken thermostat. :) Love that pink sunrise.. it's a beauty. And I'm glad that you're toasty warm.

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  17. Hilary,
    Come on, with that quick wit and love of punnery you possess, you can't tell me that you wouldn't have found something just a little bit romantic, if not downright hot, about something called a Thermocoupler! I am revelling in the overheated house these days, quite as pink with warmth as the pictured sunrise.

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