A VERY Cold Christmas

With all of the snow outside it is nice to know that in the middle of winter, my family has the comfort of a working furnace. At least we thought until yesterday. I woke up in the middle of the night to a high pitched squeeling noise downstairs. I sent Jon down to investigate. Upon his return, he reported that the motor on the furnace was having problems and that he would take a look at it in the morning.
In the morning, Jon took a closer look at the furnace and said that the motor needed to be replaced. With a 5 day old baby in the house, I wasn't about to let it get any colder than it already was at that point. After calling a few companies, one agreed that they could come over and take a look. Diagnosis...a cracked heat exchanger and the bearings were completely gone. According to the serial number, the furnace was used when the house was built in 1990 making it just about 20 years old. By code, he wasn't supposed to leave our furnace running. But he wasn't about to leave us totally without heat. So this kind man ran home and brought us two of his personal CO2 detectors to hold us over until we could get another furnace installed.
About half an hour later, a co-worker of his came to show us the different options we had to install. He stayed for a good hour. Remeber, this all happened on Christmas Eve. A time to spend with family or do last minute shopping. And yet, here they were, in my home helping me with my families dilema.
The result in all this. Monday, we are going to have a new furnace and A/C system installed and the swamp cooler taken off our roof. Something we had intended to do in the spring. On the way home from our Mary & Joseph dinner Jon turned to me in the car and thanked me for his Christmas present. I asked him, "What present"? To which he responded, "A/C" to which I then thanked him for my furnace that he gave me.
This story continues. All night long, noise continued to come from the fan and the motor of the furnace. Chrismas day I called the company back and told them the furnace had completely stopped working and it was getting colder. This kind man gathered all of the space heaters he could find from his house, the company shop and other places and delivered them to our home...Merry Christmas to all and to all a warm house.