A red letter day??

St Martha. Wednesday 28th July, 2020

It sums up the vacuity of life when one is excited at the prospect of the boiler man coming. I'm not in charge of the house's workings as I am a guest not the landlady. And it is a relief as insurance, repairs, plumbing and the rest seem ever to occupy time...I have huge sympathy for Martha, whose feast day is today. With Covid 19 around I have become the front man for visitors or doorbell responses. A Tesco delivery has me greeting from afar and carrying the bags through the porch to the kitchen. The front door is opened every morning for the post man so that if anything arrives too large for the letter box it is left inside and no contact is needed.

Today is a red letter day. Concern for the boiler meant a phone call last week to the gas company head office. We were told a boiler man would come anytime in the morning on Wednesday, today. Normally I do not physically get up until 10am. Before then I have streamed my services, read the online news, answered and sent emails and meditated and gotten myself together. Today I was all buoyed up. The sun was to rise at 4.27am so could the boiler man come any time after that. So foolishly I was awake at 4.15am! I opened my bedroom door so as to hear the door bell more easily.

No one...so I was at breakfast by 8.30am. By 10am I felt the morning had gone but still I waited. At 11.20am he appeared. The situation was set out to him, the concerns and the various things which had been noted. He was masked ( it almost seemed a designer mask!) and boiler suited with bags of instruments galore. Down to the basement and lots of sounds of pumps and gas ignitions and panel instruments whizzing around. One long silver prod was inserted in to a white tardis on the wall. I counted 17 copper pipes. I counted 14 push buttons with digits and code words. I counted 9 leavers with casings. Some valves (6 I think) were unlocked and a gasometer inserted. A Geiger counter for gas leeks and carbon monoxide. The gas meter, upstairs, was unscrewed, prodded, probed and more levers turned including one with a notice saying 'Do not touch'.

Then the explanation. What the boiler man of last year said was 'wrong'. We must not regulate by radiator dials. We must not have 3 time settings. We must regulate by doing A, B and C or X, Y and Z. (All double Dutch or techno speke to me).

A blue form was given us, the other 5 forms ( yellow, pink, ochre, white and green) went off to be filed. A cheery wave after coffee refused. Designer mask removed as he walked the drive, breathing a sigh of relief! These dinosaurs!

God alone knows what that was all about but at least life goes on and is as complicated as ever. The Government may be sending out confusing messages and not have a clue about the virus, it's spikes and mutations. Well, I haven't a clue about A,B,C or X,Y and Z, but I have a blue form to say all is okay.