Natural ass

[shunn]

So Wednesday afternoon I smelled natural gas in my home office.

Some of you will recall what happened a couple of years ago when I smelled gas in our Queens apartment but didn't call the gas company until after I'd gone to work. This time was not like that. Our landlord had had a guy in working on installing some new laundry equpiment in the basement, so I headed downstairs. The smell was much stronger in the basement.

I called Peoples Gas, and Ella and I hung out in the back yard to wait. With the basement door propped open, you could smell the gas from the top of the steps heading down the concrete stairwell. The gas men arrived and found not one but three leaks in the new lines. One was due to a fitting connected to the new dryer that was the wrong size.

I left a message with the landlord while the gas company was repairing the problems. He called me back later. I saved his voice mail. Sounding laconic, he says, "I guess that's what happens when you pay top dollar for the best."

Right, it's funny. As funny as the time the guys were in the basement removing old radiator pipes from our floorboards and I happened to see a stream of sparks shooting out of an elbow joint jutting from our floor. All I can say is thank goodness I was home. If not, I could have come home to a dead dog, or worse. Christ. The landlords were shits in New York too, but at least they didn't pretend not to be.

Comments

[karen-w-newton.livejournal.com]

I read your earlier post. I guess the thing to do would be rent from the gas company. They sound like they would make better landlords.

It's funny (as in peculiar) about gas vs. electricity. Both can be dangerous, but the thought of a gas explosion scares me a heck of a lot more than an electrical fire. We have gas heat, a gas clothes dryer, and a gas water heater, but an electric stove. I know people who love to cook on gas stoves, but I'm not one of them. They scare me, and I burn the food.

p.s. Forgot to say, I'm glad Ella is OK. She is one cute dog.

[(Anonymous)]

What a narrow escape for Ella and you....At least you caught it in time.

I THINK my landlord is a decent landlord, for the most part, but he also makes me think of Tony Soprano. The one time we ran out of oil right before the first major snowstorm, we called him up to tell him, and he had the oil company guy on our doorstep the next morning, ready to fall upon his sword to reclaim his honor.

[pixelfish.livejournal.com]

Eeps. That was me.

[scottedelman.livejournal.com]

Glad you all made it out alive!

[secritcrush.livejournal.com]

Sounding laconic, he says, "I guess that's what happens when you pay top dollar for the best.

That's the sort of comment that would make me want to cause a little damage to his propoerty (in a manner that couldn't be attributed to me.)

[shunn.livejournal.com]

I'm sure you have ideas, o Engineer?

No thank you?

[maryturzillo.livejournal.com]

Oh Lord, Bill! The landlord should have got down on his knees and thanked you for having the sense and the cool head to do the right thing! He could have lost everything, and I bet his insurance wouldn't have covered all of it.

Come to think of it, what if you had had a cold and hadn't been able to smell the gas?

I also have this vision of you out in the back yard in single-digit cold weather, freezing your nose off. Ouch.

Glad everything is okay.