What a gas

As I sit here late on a Friday night trying to think of what to write and reflecting on the week, I am aware that I have been very, very busy in recent days. It would be fair to ask when that is not the case, but this week it affected the time and mental energy I had to devote to this blog. I know, I know, no one's holding me to daily blogging but me, and the world won't stop if I don't post an entry. I like doing it. I want to do it. I'm disappointed when I see the mediocre entries, but what's done is done.

Overall the week was OK. Kind of strange and kind of long. There have been few knitting opportunities--the only "free" night I had was Monday--so that goes a long way in explaining why my knitblog entries have been less inspired. When I worked on the baby blanket last, I noticed that the yarn over holes are "off" in the pattern for a couple inches on one side. (They don't line up.) I'm not sure what happened, but I'm not fixing it. Again, what's done is done.

I had a plan for what I was going to do today, but the gas company had other ideas. I arrived home after midnight from the film festival's opening night and found a tag on my doorknob telling me to contact my natural gas provider and have them turn on my meter. I didn't think anything of it before going to bed; however, there did seem to be a chill in the air that awakened me all night long. Sure enough, I got up to find the thermostat at 57. The furnace was blowing cold air, and I had no hot water.

I called the gas company to find out what was going on and why I wasn't given more advance notice. I didn't get a clear answer. The customer service rep wanted to know why I was calling. I complained about the lack of notice for having my heat turned off and asked that they get it fixed as soon as possible. I was told that I had to be at home for a four hour window to have it taken care of. I wasn't going to be home for four hours straight, but what choice did I have when she told me that they didn't work weekends?

I rearranged some work plans and intended to be at home three hours earlier than I initially told the representative. I called back to pass this along. This CSR told me to cancel the current technician request and call when I arrived at home. That sounded more reasonable.

I phoned a third time. The person I talked to told me that someone would be out between then (12:30 p.m.) and midnight. That set me off. I told her that this entire situation was unacceptable and that they had already inconvenienced me quite a bit. Now I supposedly had to stick around the apartment for half of a day in the hope that they would show up eventually? I didn't yell, but there was no doubt she could hear how unhappy I was. (It didn't help that her responses were akin to "it'll be on our terms, take it or leave it".)

Fine. I wrote a review, straightened up my apartment some for Saturday's invasive potential renter visit, and steamed that no one from the gas company had come. I was washing some kitchenware when I saw a truck pull up down the street. Almost an hour passed, and still no one had fixed my problem. I needed to leave in about a half hour, so I marched out of the apartment and went a half block to speak to the tech at the truck.

Would you believe that he was in the area to fix something else and knew nothing of my problem? He radioed someone and then came over to my building. The meters are outside. Oddly enough, mine was the only one turned off. Everyone had had notices on their doors, so you can imagine who was getting angrier about this nonsense. The catch in all of this is that I have the only furnace requiring a manual start. That's why I had to be home. I took the tech to the basement and unlocked my storage area so he could fire up the hot water tank. I brought him into my apartment and pointed him to the attic to get the furnace working.

The tech said that the guy operating the backhoe for the sewer line replacements was nicking the gas lines left and right. That's what started the whole mess. I give the tech a lot of credit for taking care of the matter quickly and not blowing me off. It's a good thing I took an assertive approach because I came home tonight to a voicemail left at 8:50 by the gas company. Someone was in the area to fix my problem. Idiots.