As long as I have been expected to accomplish things, I have struggled with procrastination. When I was finally on my own and living in my first apartment, just before the first cold front of autumn blew in, my heater stopped working. I heard it happen as plain as day. It kicked on for a minute, and then it made a sound that resembled the way a noise making toy sounds when the battery dies. Then it was off. No matter what I did, the HVAC wouldn’t kick back on. I decided not to worry too much about it yet, because it was still warm enough that I didn’t really need the heater. Naturally, I never called the HVAC repairman. Before I knew it, winter was in full force, and I was without a functioning heater. Unfortunately, by the time I realized it, the meteorologists were warning us that an ice storm was on its way. I picked up my phone to call the HVAC company, and I waited for what felt like a very frigid eternity. Every minute my heater wasn’t on, I felt my panic grow a little bit. Finally they answered, “Thank you for calling….” The nice man on the other end of the line proceeded to tell me that he wouldn’t be able to come fix my precious heater until next week. By next week I would be a frostbitten icicle, because I would have no heat for this ice storm. I learned my lesson the hard way that year, and once my heater was up and running again, I didn’t turn it off until March. Since then I have done everything possible to ensure that my heater is up and running before winter ever hits.