[2264] in Depressing_Thoughts
cold showers (long)
jcb@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (jcb@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Thu Aug 8 18:57:37 1991
This week generally sucks.
It started on Monday. I came home to find that the gas company had
removed my gas meter for non-payment of the bill. (Yes, I can be
irresponsible at times.) They got a warrant, went into the house, and
removed it.
I can accept that. It was my own stupidity that caused it. I paid the
bill on Tuesday and called the gas company to install the new meter,
telling them I would be home after 9:30pm. That information didn't make
it onto the order, and the gas person came at 3:30pm. I got home and
found the "you weren't home..." card.
I made another appointment, for "after 6:00pm" that day. The person
came around 7:00, installed a new meter, and turned on everything in my
house that uses gas (furnace, hot water heater, stove and dryer). He
checked everything and found out that the chimney didn't vent (a lit
match held near the vent of the hot water heater very promptly went
out). He shut off my gas and locked it (legally, he was required to do
so). I called a chimney sweep.
The sweep came today. He cleared about 4-5 cubic feet of leaves, animal
droppings, and fallen bricks and mortar from the chimney and tested it
with a cigarette. The smoke blew *out* of the chimney instead of up the
chimney. This is because the chimney is old (about 110 years like the
rest of the house), the mortar has crumbled, and the chimney doesn't
suck (which sucks). This means I need to have the chimney lined and a
turbine put on top of it, at a cost of $1850.
The sweep will *probably* be able to finish the job by tomorrow evening.
A week of cold showers sucks. Paying nearly $2000 for the privilege of
taking warm showers (not to mention heating my house in winter) sucks
even more.
Then again, in one sense it's probably a good thing that all this
happened. Now my furnace and hot water heater won't be spewing carbon
monoxide all over my basement.
