Hey there, I'm back.
And I was almost killed this morning, along with my dog, Donna, Donna's dog, Gerard and Gerard's dog.
You see, Donna and Pepper stayed overnight. We went to bed, and Gerard comes bounding down the stairs around 4 a.m., saying, "Andy, wake up, we have a major problem." I stir, and smell something funny, but it doesn't register until Gerard says, "We have a gas leak upstairs. The pilot light went out on the stove and the whole house if full of gas."
Strangely, probably because I was so damn tired, I didn't panic. I did shift into crisis mode though. The smell of the gas was pretty strong in the basement, so I went to the only open-able window and opened it. Gerard already had the upstairs doors and windows open and a fan in the window trying to ventilate the place. Donna started complaining she couldn't breathe, so I told her to go outside while I gathered up some things as quickly as possible.
Why didn't I get out of the house and stay out? Because if the house was going to blow at that point, it would have already--Gerard had turned on numerous lights and even plugged in the fan upstairs, where the gas smell was really, really bad. We put the dogs in Gerard's van and turned on the heat. Of course, the gas company didn't show after 20 minutes or so, so we called the fire department. They showed up and called the gas company, and they were there in 10. Meanwhile, Donna sat in the van with the dogs and I went between there and standing outside listening to what the firemen had to say.
Obviously, the house did not go up. Nicor (the gas asses) showed up and plugged the line and turned the heat back on. He also told Gerard the bad news that he'll have to have the whole oven/range area of the kitchen redone with new appliances and such, because of the way the prior owner configured the gas lines in there. Apparently, when they finished the basement, they covered up the valve to shut off the gas to the oven upstairs with drywall on the ceiling instead of removable paneling. Real smart, you know?
Anyway, the firemen used an industrial fan to exhaust the house, and I went back to sleep around 6:30ish, though not too heavily.
Today I went to work and we put out the post-Super Bowl paper. The day seems to be winding down now, but like Sundays, I'm kind of sitting around with little to nothing to do but wait. Though I'm not in a major hurry because I hear traffic is just abhorrent because of the snow.
Tomorrow, a much-needed day off. I'm still kind of on West Coast time, as I didn't get hungry until about 2:30 for lunch. Other than that, I've got some catching up on things to do at home...including laundry. But who knows what will happen, right?
Thank God I'm alive... :)
