With the temperatures outside A Bitty Better in the Liverpool neighborhood of Galeville barely approaching zero last weekend and the windchill quite below that mark in Fahrenheit, I said in our living room and felt a chill.

More than the obvious.

I looked at the thermostat and saw the digital reading fall. Below 70. Once it hit 65, I called the company we used when we lived in The Little Bitty in the Syracuse neighborhood of Eastwood. The service guy who called me back said his slate was full. No go. He added that his first thought was that our furnace was not powerful enough to keep up with this frigid snap, and if he were me, he’d think about adding a conversion to make it more powerful.

When the temperature went below 60, I called a local company. The woman on the line asked what I’d done to self-correct. Yes, I’d changed the filter this season. I’d shoveled around the intake and exhaust pipes, yes.

Access denied?

She was quite kind, and said she could said someone out the next day if needed.

One, I went to the Best Buy and purchased the very last portable room-sized heater.

Two, I went out to those pipes and did some more fiddling.

Trying another angle.

I unbent a hanger and poked inside the angles of both. I whacked both good using my large car scraper.

And when I went inside, slowly but surely, warm air again began to blow out of our vents. It took a while, but the temperature reach our desired level. I called the local company and said that service appointment would not be needed.

What a winter.