The Importance Of Batteries

It's hard to imagine that the well-being of every living thing in my house, humans, cats, fish and plants, is 100% dependent on 3 AA batteries. But it's true, and I discovered just how important these AA batteries are yesterday.

Monday night Suz and I were watching TV with the fireplace on, and wondering why it was so dang cold in the house. The blankets we were using felt like they had come out of the fridge, and the couch cushions were room temperature.

Unfortunately the room's temperature was very cold. We were baffled.

When we woke up in the morning the house was even colder. About 7 degrees colder than it should have been. The house had dipped to 13 Celcius while the outside temperature was -1.

Suz found the culprit right away. The thermostat had failed because the 3 AA batteries which run it, had passed away. Yes, the batteries had died.

I sacrificed the Double-As from our TV remote to satisfy the Gods of Nonfunctioning Thermostats. I put the new batteries into the thermostat and pressed "Run Program". The settings were stored, so the furnace knew exactly what day and time it was, and turned on immediately.

Two hours later I left for work, but was still shivering a bit, because the house had only risen to 18 degrees. Thankfully we did not have to make funeral arrangements for the dead batteries.