I just heard a wonderful sound come from my air ducts — the sound of my furnace working.

My husband went to turn it on the other day, to see if everything was OK before the really cold weather hits.

Well, it turned out it wasn’t OK. The blower motor wasn’t working. We had a furnace repairman come and make the diagnosis. He took it out and examined it, and with a flick of his finger spun the stuck cylinder inside and got it working again.

But just how long it will last is a guessing game, the repairman noted, because the unit is old. So we have a few choices — do nothing and hope it lasts another winter. Replace the blower motor, estimated at up to $600 or replace the furnace altogether for about $4,000. Ouch, right?

We have a few days to make a decision on the estimate. For now we’re waiting and hoping it continues to work.

That may make the decision for us.

It’s one of those things we take for granted, having warmth in the winter. Before our appointment with the furnace guy, it was going to be too cold to sleep there, so one night we hauled ourselves to my mom’s house to spend the night. (Thanks again, mom.) After I dropped our son off at school the next morning, I went back to the house and we definitely made the right decision. It was only 55 degrees inside, according to the thermostat. Brrr.

I covered up with blankets and turned up our little electric fireplace, pushing it closer to my chair. It took a good three more hours and sunlight streaming through the windows to get the thermostat up to 62 degrees. But what a difference that made!

Now I’m hoping for a mild winter just to give our old furnace (and our wallets) a break.

Hanson can be reached at shanson@timesleaderonline.com.