2024年寒潮 Arctic Blast 2024

The arctic blast hit us today, Janurary 13, 2024, with outdoor temperature hoverling at 19 F. What is worse, our furnace stopped working. In-door temperature used to heat up to 68. Now it's only 51. It being Saturday, we could not reach any help. Hong suggested me posting on Nextdoor APP (https://nextdoor.com), which I did. We soon received scores of tips and suggestions, but the furnace is still dead. When I called the HVAC company that installed our furnace two months ago, the answering service said that we might to have to wait a week.

At a loss, I heard a knock at our backdoor. It was Hong in the snow. He wore anti-slip boots, supported by a stick, and carried a big bundle. He'd brought us a heating pad and a heavy blanket.

Eventually, with plug-in portable heaters and the fireplace, we managed to heat the rooms to 62. With help from heating blankets, our nights would not be too bad, even though this 19F weather would not end until Tuesday. Later, we learned from our HVAC installer that they would come Monday.

Monday afternoon, their tech showed up on time and found out what went wrong: our drain pipe got frozen. He found a temporary solution to restore our heating, and would come again to replace the drain pipe altogether. Our ordeal is now over, thanks goodness.

我们今天（2024.1.13）遇到寒潮了。冷到摄氏零下八度！而且，我们的暖炉（furnace）竟然在今天罢工了。我们家的室内温度一般调在摄氏20度，但今天只剩下14度。今天星期六是很难叫到维修工的。儿子建议我发文在社交平台Nextdoor（邻里网站）求助。很快，我们收到几十条的建议。但是，暖炉仍然不启动。打电话到两个月前给我们安装暖炉的厂家，回说要一个星期后才能派人来。

惶乱中，后院的玻璃门有人敲门。是儿子，他穿着防水鞋，持着防滑拐，提了一大袋东西，从雪地中走来。他带来了电热毯和大毛毯。

终于，依靠插电的小暖炉和烧煤气的壁炉（fireplace），室温渐渐地提升到17度。靠着电热毯，今天晚上还是不会冷的。寒潮要到星期二结束。天天零下八度上下。不过，我们接到安装暖炉的厂家的通知，他们后天（星期一）可到。

星期一下午，安装暖炉的厂家的技术员按时到达。天寒地冻，我们这条街的坡陡不好开车。他把车停在坡底，人步行上来。他立即知道问题出在哪里：是室外的滴流管道（drain pipe）冻住了。他马上临时引流，暖炉顿时启动，送来暖气。过几天，他们还将派人来另行设置滴流管道。