Story Time!

[zallia]

And now it's time for more Adventures of Amanda Getting in Trouble Because She Can't Tell the Difference Between The Smells of Natural Gas and Sewer Gas!

We're gonna need a better title for this. Sad that it even needs a title at all. >_>

Sooo.....Monday night, I'm going about business as normal and about 10:00pm I go out to feed the outside cats. When I come back in I noticed a smell in my house. I think I just hadn't noticed it before because of the lack of contrast with the fresh air. It's something I can't readily identify, but closest is plastic or gasoline. I had been messing with liquid resin, but nope not that, seemingly nothing else either, so I figure it's the neighbor's car or something and go to bed.

Wake up the next morning and the smell is in the bedroom now and more potent. I dump water down the sewer drain, after learning my lesson from last time, but it's not that smell. So I call Mom over to smell my house, much to her displeasure and she just thinks it's the cat boxes, but when I lead her out back and make her smell my pipes, she agrees it might be bad and to call my heating repair people.

So I get to work, call them, send my dad over to wait and guess what!! It IS a gas leak!! I had made sure the night before that the CO2 detector was working and it was, but now people are saying "well, that's not what it's for". Then wtf is it for?? I wanted it so I'd know my damn house was filling up with deadly gas! So gas is shut off. Not too bad for me, the heater's already broken, so it's just no hot water. Cold shower was cold, so next time I'll go to Mom's unless I can get super hot first.

So yesterday, my dad goes over to mow the lawn and tells my mom he still smells something funky in the backyard. I had been smelling the "sulphur/rotten egg" smell in my neighborhood for several weeks, but not smelling it strongly enough around my house, didn't really give much thought as to doing anything about it, esp cause Nina's house had been empty for so long. But now, since there's precidence...*sigh* So I go home at lunch, smell around, call the gas company since it must be at least he alley since mine has been shut off, get chewed out for having the plumbers turn it off and not the gas co. and they send somebody over. Thankfully I had a two-hour lunch this day.

The guy at least was super nice and friendly, but tells me that's not gas he smells but sewer, lets me smell his jug, yah, that's my house smell. So WTF do I not smell the rotten eggs in that??? Blarg. Anyhow, he dismantles my meter, puts a lovely red DANGER tag on it, gives me another one to give to whomever, gives me some nice advice about getting it fixed and goes on his way. Guess I'm supposed to call the city about the sewer, but I'll let the people I've seen in and out next door handle that.

Sooo, I'm putting off getting it fixed for the time being since the water heater needs replacing anyway and this seems an optimal time to go completely electric, since I had been worrying about gas leaks from the very beginning and now that's been proven valid, but *that* might end up costing more if the 220 volt thing needs replacing or whatever and my heating/plumbing people are the shit when it comes to giving quotes which is why my heater never got fixed in time for the winter from hell to take over PLUS I'll need an electrical quote to compare it to. Aaaaargh, I hate this stuff!! I was supposed to have a man by this time that I could pawn all this stuff off on. Stupid growing up and responsibility and all that. >:(

Comments

[serisun.livejournal.com]

You poor girl. I think electric might be worth its cost to you just to avoid all these "is it or isn't it" messes.