Bestest Friend and I are doing a blog project. Each day we will write a blog post on a pre-determined theme chosen by a random noun generator. The theme for the twenty-eighth day of the month is "Meaning."
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Preview: Everything is fine.
The morning walk had been taken, breakfast had been served, and I was settling in on the couch to do my Spanish on Duolingo. The cat had jumped up and was sprawled across my legs. My husband wanders in sniffing in a quite exaggerated manner. He smelled gas, I smelled something. We went down in the basement and the odor was really strong there, so we put Zelda in her carrier, put Hannah's leash on, and we were all bundled up in the car before we called the energy company's emergency line.
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| A very confused Zelda. |
What do you take when you leave the house in a psuedo-emegency? I mean, obviously all the living creatures were taken out of the house, except for that very large spider who lives in the basement and takes care of things down there. I took my purse, Kindle, a library book, and my phone. My husband grabbed his work bag and his phone. I thought those were meaningful choices on both of our parts.
If you live in rural Wisconsin, the response time for an emergency call to WE Energies is 20 minutes. On one hand, that seems pretty good. On the other hand, it seems like a lot could happen in twenty minutes, you know? Oh, well. We choose to live in the middle of nowhere, so this is all on us.
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| Hannah was LIVID about this disruption to her morning nap routine and refused to look at us. |
Anyway, they arrived quickishly and I stayed in the car with the girls while Dr. BB did manly things with the other men, waving wands about and taking measurements. There was no gas and they gave us a scratch and sniff card with what natural gas would smell like and I swear to you that both of us smelled that. Anyway. They said it was safe. I had to pee like mad, so I ran inside to pee and they left.
Dr. BB went to work.
It still smells like gross in here. I know it's 27 degrees outside and snowing, but I may be forced to open the windows soon.
Yikes! Glad you are all okay. A gas leak is no joke. We had a carbon monoxide leak in our home when I was 32 weeks pregnant, and my oldest was one. It was terrifying, but thank goodness we had a CO detector. The doctor who checked me out asked if I was feeling tired, as that's a sign of poisoning, and I was like, dude, I am 32 weeks pregnant and I have a one-year-old. YES I'M TIRED BUT WHO CAN SAY. Anyway, we are all still here so yay.
ReplyDeleteThank goodness for technology to save the day! I'm glad you were all okay!
DeleteTHIS IS ONLY A DRILL!
ReplyDeleteSo now you have to figure out what the heck that smell is? Nobody is smelling it but you two? And you're walking around sniffing like bloodhounds to determine exactly where you smell it the strongest?
No fun.
But seriously, you have to figure this out. Could it possibly be coming from any of the antique furniture you recently brought into the house? Now that it's warmed up, maybe it's releasing an odd, musty, or new-to-you smell.
The smell went away by lunchtime and we haven't smelled it since, so I dunno. I'm hoping it was just a weird fluke like something burning off in the furnace? It's a mystery.
DeleteOh no!!! We have a furnace that smells slightly funny lately but I feel like sometimes it is a phantom scent because only I'll be able to smell it or vice versa. It has only been since we had the furnace cleaned (done annually). So I think it's tied to that, but it is driving me crazy.
ReplyDeleteWe have two carbon monoxide detectors in our house; thankfully they've never gone off, but gas leaks are such scary business. I'm glad you're okay and also hope you get to the bottom of what that smell is soon.
Also, this was such a cute photo caption: Hannah was LIVID about this disruption to her morning nap routine and refused to look at us. THIS IS JUST LIKE WHAT MY KIDS DO. I love Hannah's sass. Love. It.
We only had one CO detector in our upper level, which was suggested by our home owners' insurance because people asleep might not notice, but my husband immediately ordered another one for our basement and it's already been installed.
DeleteWhat a weird thing! I wonder what in the world you're smelling. Let's see... if that happened to us we would have to evacuate both cats and three guinea pigs. Then, I guess under the assumption that the house could possibly explode at any minute, I would grab my purse, phone, laptop and running shoes. Ha ha- I just threw that last one in randomly, but I might really grab them. Anyway, I'm glad you're okay and I hope you can get to the bottom of the odd smell.
ReplyDeleteIn retrospect, I'm really upset with myself for not grabbing my laptop! Why was a random library book more important than that?! My laptop was plugged in, though, and I was nervous that if it WAS gas, then unplugging it might spark something. That was my reasoning, but it still seems like a dumb choice looking back.
DeleteOh, scary! I'm glad it wasn't gas, I mean I guess I'm glad except what was it? That would worry me so much.
ReplyDeleteAssuming I had a few minutes, more than just grab Maggie and mom and run, I would take my purse, phone, tablet, laptop. Passport and birth certificate, prescriptions, folder of passwords, chargers....okay, by now I need to be out of the building, don't I? I actually have a bug-out list, but leaving ahead of a hurricane is *slightly* less rushed than for a possible gas leak.
I will be honest that grabbing our safe with important docs and medications did not occur to either of us! We each had our ID and phones and I think we could do a lot with those, but proving we are married or even my birth certificate would be challenging.
DeleteWhew! What a scary morning.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that I would take very much with me in an emergency. People, the dog, and my purse are the musts and my laptop would be a nice to have. As much as I treasure my family heirlooms, they fall very low on the list.
Family heirlooms did not cross our mind, either. I do think not grabbing my laptop was silly, but it made sense at the time.
DeleteHow maddening!
ReplyDeleteIt reminds me of a story my co-worker told me when she was living in some townhouses and they were told they had to leave because something to do with the next door neighbor and the police having to tear gas him out of his place. And the police came and knocked on her door and told her and her husband that they had to vacate and to take the dog with them.
"What about the cat?" she asked.
There was a pause. Then they said, "Oh the cat will be fine. You can leave it."
What?! Cats have tiny little lungs. Imagine the damage something like that could do. It would be way worse for a cat than a human! If I'm told to take my dog, I'm also grabbing my baby kitty!!
DeleteI wonder what will happen next? Will you get to the bottom of it? Time will tell.
ReplyDeleteSo far we have not gotten to the bottom of it, but we do have a new explosive gas detector in our basement! Nothing is going to get us.
DeleteOh yikes! That is scary! Something similar happened to a couple a few houses down from us this winter. There wasn't a gas leak but the people who came out figured out that their CO detector was not functioning.
ReplyDeleteIt would have potentially taken us 20 minutes to get Oscar into her carrier if this happened to us!! She HATES the carrier so much so it's a 2-person job to get her in it. We have to take it apart and then I close it onto her once she's inside!
I was pleasantly surprised that Zelda just went into her carrier with no fight. There have been times when she's been a bit more aggressive about it. Ha. We train Zelda regularly to let us pick her up and occasionally put her in her kennel for ten seconds and let her out again just for emergency purposes, so I think she's used to it now. We've had three emergencies when we've had to put her in her kennel quickly and she's always cooperate in times of stress, fortunately.
DeleteIf there's ever a tornado, I don't know what we'll do with the dog, though, because she's scared of going into the basement. We've been working on training her to go down, but the most I've gotten so far is two paws on the second step down.
Oh my goodness, not fun. Zelda is so pretty. Hannah not looking at you looks like my son when he was little once and my parents were here visiting and were leaving. He turned his back and refused to say good-bye and it was sad and funny all at once.
ReplyDeleteIt is heartbreaking when they won't even look at you, isn't it?!
DeleteWhat a hectic morning! I'm glad it turned out to be nothing serious, but what a scary thing to go through. Good thing you guys were quick on your feet!
ReplyDeleteI always, always worry about what I would do if there was a fire at my apartment. The noise of the fire alarm would freak out both girls, so how in the world would I get them into a carrier? It's something I need to figure out, at least so I can stop worrying about it!
Yes, as I said to Lisa, we have been training Zelda to accept being picked up and put in her carrier in non-emergent times. It wasn't always easy to get her to go into her kennel. Our vet advised us to put her kennel out as a place she can relax and sometimes she goes in there on her own to take a nap! But once loud alarms and sirens are going off, I don't know if I'd even been able to FIND her. Hm. I'll have to think about how to train that.
DeleteGoodness, that is a scary scenario! I'm glad all is well though.
ReplyDelete