My cousin lives way down south where it rarely ever snows. She tells me to come and visit whenever I feel too cold up north. We’ve been close ever since the two of us were children. Nearly every summer, our parents would take us on trips together, and other times we went to stay with our grandparents. Since neither of us had any siblings, we became each other’s siblings. We attended the same school growing up, but ultimately, we both found careers on opposite sides of the country. Last year, it was my turn to go visit my cousin in the winter. I was hoping that the weather would be nice and warm like I was used to down there. However, the weather proved to be uncharacteristically cold. Her water pipes had frozen and power was spotty in the area because of a freak winter storm. Her gas furnace also was on the fritz. She called me to warn me about this development. I wasn’t too concerned because I was used to that kind of weather anyway. I decided to take the trip and she picked me up at the airport. I have to say that she had a very good heater in her car, and it felt wonderful on the drive home. However, when we went into the house, I saw that the gas furnace had completely failed. My cousin told me she turned it on the previous day and it would not heat anything. It turns out that the gas furnace made a funny noise, and suddenly, it was not functioning. We now had to wait a few days for an HVAC technician to come out and repair the issue. Since it was too cold to deal with, we both booked a hotel in the area for our staycation.