OH MY GAWD! IT'S TOO EARLY!

 I woke up early this morning, way too freaking early. We have had the temperatures drop into the teens and 20s around here early in the mornings this past week. We turned our house heater all the way down on the thermostat so it won't turn on and have space heaters in the rooms that we inhabit. When we aren't in a room we turn them off and close the door.

Well, I woke up around 3:40 am this morning, not the usual time which is around 8:30 am. I smelled something burning. I got up turned on the bedroom light waking up David and I immediately went to the space heater to check it. There was nothing burning coming off it and it was running normally. It was fine. I was thinking the heater in the room with the dogs and the cat. I opened the bedroom door and no smoke but there was the strong smell of something burning and the sound of the house heater was running. I ran to the room with the dogs. Nothing wrong but they were very happy to see mom up so early in the morning. 

The one thing that was oblivious to me had David asking if I turned on the house heater last night before bedtime. We never use the house heater. Then it hit me. The dining room with the thermostat for the house heater was closed off and the room was like ice. The thermostat clicked on automatically because the room temperature where the thermostat was located hit in the 40s. I ran right by the heater which was ON and I didn't even notice that it was running. I was worried for the pets and the thought of a fire. The burning smell was coming from the house gas heater. It was burning off dust buildup from not being in use for two years. How I didn't notice that is beyond me.

I turned on the computer and saw the weather station temps outside our house was 16 F no wind. The heater kicked on because the temps in the house fell lower than 40 F. We didn't notice because we had the space heaters running in the two bedrooms which were both warm and toasty.

Ahhhhhh... the house heater finally shut off. Everything is fine once more, the burning smell is gone and I'm happy. The cat is in her warm perch the puppies are under the blanket next to me on the couch. Only bad thing is, I'm up at this ungodly hour when I should be sleeping. It's going to be a  l o n g, l o n g  d a y. I need a coffee refill.