FoodBanter.com - View Single Post - Wildly OT

Jean B.[_1_]

wrote:
> Okay, most of you know that we were forced to move in the middle of
> one of the worst cold snaps, with some of the worst snow of my
> lifetime. You may also recall that our car's engine blew up about a
> week and a half ago.
>
> Those were easy.
>
> Yesterday, we had to call the ambulance to pick Crash up because his
> hip was about to dislocate and we were trying to prevent another
> painful occurance. The hip was in place until they started to take x-
> rays, then POP! Since Left Hip version 2.0 was installed in
> Rochester, he was shipped there to get it popped back into place.
> Usually fairly routine. But in this case, his heart stopped twice
> while he was under anesthesia. They got it going with CPR, but it was
> not what we'd call a Good Thing.
>
> Then, he was stranded, 50 miles from home, late at night. After 3
> hours, he finally got in contact with the hospital's social worker,
> who got him a taxi voucher for the trip. $119 cab fare! But since
> the car blew up ....
>
> Still ... easy.
>
> Tonight, I smelled something in the kitchen that got worse when I
> sniffed at the top of the basement stairs. Didn't smell quite like
> gas, but close enough that I called the gas company. The gas guy took
> his little geiger counter out and it started squealing like a stuck
> pig. He said we had a carbon dioxide count of 197. I don't know what
> that means, but he said, "Get your animals and get OUT of the
> building!" Then he started pounding on the door of the people in the
> other half of the duplex, and evaculated them, too. We had the
> utility truck, two squad cars, and a fire truck in front of our house
> for a couple hours.
>
> The Red Cross had us set up to stay at a hotel for the night (which
> would be okay if we had a CAR to get there and back), but then the
> heating and plumbing guy came and said it was safe to be here, because
> the gas was turned off. He just wanted to set up a bunch of space
> heaters and get all of our faucets on perma-trickle so the pipe won't
> freeze (we have radiator heat - and it's 3F outside). We plugged two
> heaters in on the main floor and promptly blew a fuse. No fuses
> here. No car. Heating guy tells us that there is a decomposing cat
> in the basement. Ick! We're still moving in, and the basement light
> doesn't work. We had no idea. Ick! Heating guy said to go ahead and
> heat the kitchen with the electric oven, door open. So that's our
> only main floor heat.
>
> There are exactly two of those newfangled electrical outlets that can
> be reset in this whole house. One's in the kitchen (Crash is using an
> extension cord in that one to power his computer that was attached to
> one of the dead outlets in the living room) and the other is in the
> bathroom. So we have a space heater in the bathroom. But we're
> nervous about plugging any into the bedroom outlets, so we're just
> gonna sleep in sweats.
>
> We find out tomorrow if the boiler needs to be replaced or if it can
> be repaired. Then we find out how long a replacement will take to
> arrive if a new one is required.
>
> The cockatiels are visiting next door. We hope that the neighbors'
> two Rottweilers will leave them alone until it's safe for them to
> return home.
>
> I think that's about it for now. I may have missed something.
> Probably have. It's been an interesting year so far. Update tomorrow
> after we find out how long we'll be living in an igloo.
>
> ObFood: We had pizza delivered. I didn't feel like cooking.
>
> Carol

Egad, Carol! What a horrific nightmare--or series of nightmares.
I really hope things improve for you and Crash ASAP!

--
Jean B.