If you ever want to get anyone's attention pronto (and we
know how hard that is) tell them you suspect a gas leak. Not much else invites
such an immediate and generous response. Even with a bleeding head wound you still
have to give the emergency room nurse your date of birth, your social sec. #,
the deed to your house.
Without any interrogation the gas co. operator said, "We'll
have someone there within the hour." She didn't ask for a credit card
number. She said get out of the
house, don't turn on any lights or electrical appliances, don't light any
matches, open all the windows.
I don't know what the life of an "I smell gas"
investigator is like.
I don't know in what state of excitement he finds the smeller. The term
"blow up" might be on their minds. I think my computer is going to blow up if I fill the box
marked "agree" on any internet interrogation.
I smelled the gas in the little cottage in back of my house as
I was about to get on the train to leave for a four-day trip. For those who know me through this
blog, I hate to leave my house. I
will do almost anything to avoid going far from my domicile and you would think
a gas leak was a perfect excuse to abort the trip. I had already locked the
front door and the back door of my house and getting the keys out of the
suitcase was difficult. I walked
away from my property, the gas, the gas smell, the brain disorder (mine) and
continued to the train that happens to be at the end of my block. With every step, the words "blow
up" clippety-clopped right alongside. On the train I had a stern talk with
myself. I said, this is a chance to compartmentalize events and put them in
perspective. You opened the windows and shut down the in-take lever. Go on your trip and
forget about the gas leak.
When
I returned, I made the call and the gas team arrived 47 minutes later. The men (there
were two) were tall and rotund. They wore hard hats and big boots and held
black boxes with needles. They said, "When we leave there will not be a
shadow of a doubt that it is safe."
How often have you heard that only to have the thing blow up the minute
the truck pulls away?
I have to interrupt this banal post for important breaking
news. I took a peek at my news feed and see that a probe has landed on comet
67P in a space first. I just
nailed down info on comets this weekend reading The Magic School Bus to
my granddaughter. (I also learned
that 1.3 million earths could fit inside the sun - a fact that somehow scared
the heck out of me. The sun,
unlike the Jimmy Dean Sausage man, is not a small friendly warm thing. It is a vast, vast sociopathic star
that makes everything else revolve around it.) Scientists
hope the lander, equipped with 10 instruments, will unlock the secrets of
comets -- primordial clusters of ice and dust that may have helped sow life on
Earth. It is disturbing to hear that dust, my constant nemesis, also presents
in space. When I hear ice and dust, that sounds disgusting but if it is going
to unlock secrets, I'm all for it.
I wouldn't have thought that comets would be part of the big bang theory
but that's just another surprise in the never-ending surprise factory that is
space. When the lander started
talking to the scientists they were so happy they were dancing around acting
all teen-agey and high-fiving like crazy.
Good for you scientists - it must have been a huge relief to get that
first message.
(btw, the gas smell was due to a faulty pilot light in the stove.)
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