Your modern, reliable, "convenient" heating system will fail you - mine just did!

After hearing some very strange noises come from our fairly new heating system, we were awoken by the chill of 41°F in our house. How could this be? This is the latest, greatest heating system that is supposed to have the highest reliability ratings in the entire heating system industry. Well, the part was ordered overnight priority, but due to yesterday's snowstorm (Jan 30, 2015), UPS couldn't deliver - so we were told the soonest we could source the part would be Monday! With temperatures dropping to Zero Fahrenheit and below over the weekend, I scrambled to find this foolish part and finally located one on the western part of the state. By the time we repaired the heating system, it was too late! The pipes had frozen extensively and the temperatures were falling drastically! I wish this were not a true story, but it JUST happened to us 30 minutes before typing this description. Please consider how dependent you are upon systems that WILL fail you - systems like your heat, your suppliers, and even your UPS driver!