Apartment sagas, updated

During the day yesterday, there was an apology and an explanation sent out by the owners of the alarm. Apparently something went wrong with their smoke detector. Since it went off again after they were home, they've since purchased new ones, so presumably it will not happen again.

This morning there was a foil-wrapped package by my door (looking rather like mishloach manot), with another apology. When I unwrapped it, I found a bunch of white and dark chocolate chunk cookies, which I've put out for the orkers. I hope they appreciate it.

On the heating front: I emailed the house asking about finding out about the pilot light on my furnace (since the basement is still blocked off for mold remediation), and this morning heard that indeed, the pilot is out. I'm not impressed with the mold guys right now, who have not only taken longer than planned (by a factor of 3 now, I think), but apparently either kept the basement window by my furnace open so much of the time that it blew out, or something.

Anyway. There wasn't time this morning (I overslept; I find it much harder to judge the time on overcast mornings), so tonight I will be attempting to relight the pilot on my (old) gas furnace. I've lit pilot lights for ovens and such before, so I'm hoping it's not much different. Does anyone have experience with this to tell me one way or the other? (ie, it's pretty similar, I'll be fine, or it's a technical thing unknowledgeable people should not attempt.)

Texatical alliteration

teaks, tacks, toss


(aka TEKS, TAKS, and TAAS)

Gah! (or, how cold is it again?)

I came home. I went down to the de-moldified basement. I looked at my furnace. The pilot light is on.

That's good, I suppose.

Next step: replacing the batteries in the thermostat, even though it doesn't indicate they need replacing. I loosen the fiddly little screws, and try to get part of it off the wall.

No dice.

It sits there, firmly keeping itself attached to my wall. I pull, I pry, and nothing seems to work. I have had to change the batteries once the entire time I've lived here, and I think someone ended up doing it for me. I tried to find information online, but this thermostat is old enough (a Honeywell Chronotherm III, if anyone cares) that there's not a PDF of the user's manual online, and I've never had a paper copy. I suppose it's useful to know I can order a copy from Honeywell, but that doesn't help me NOW.

I feel so incredibly frustrated.
And cold.