Living Proof

It’s strange when you think of it, but at any given moment, if you rely on natural gas to heat your home, you’re in risk of a huge explosion. It’s always in the back of our minds: carbon monoxide poisoning, gas leaks and matches, gas leaks and fireplaces, etc., etc., etc… Natural gas is odorless, however there is a chemical called mercaptan that they add to it so we can smell it and detect if there is a problem. It almost smells like rotten eggs. Yesterday I was driving back home from going shopping. I had just packed up my car with tons of groceries and a huge box of those 5 hour burning fire logs. I was planning to come home, make a roaring fire and cook dinner for Madelene. As I’m driving on the last road to get to my place, there was a construction crew working on the ditches. Once I passed them, I was engulfed with an overwhelming smell of ‘rotten eggs’. This smell trekked all the way up my complex. I swung my vehicle around and drove over to where Madelene works and called the ...

The other night, right before I went to bed, I walked in the hallway and noticed a gas-like smell. It had that sulfuric odor to it and I knew that it had to be a leak somewhere. It was midnight and I was tired, but hell if I was going to fly under those covers to never wake up again. Madelene called the gas company and they came over right away. This older man who’s been doing this for over 30 yrs tells us he definitely smells something too. So, I’m thinking, good thing we called! He’s shuffling around the apartment and then goes to the dryer. (Which is the general area where I smelled it.) Anyway, he checks the dryer to see if it’s gas or electric and finds that it runs on electric thank God. He gets his little meter stick out to check if there are any leaks, and no beeps were heard. He walks over to the gas stove, and I heard loud beeping. “Don’t worry, just checking if this thing works.” he shouts over, reassuring that we wouldn’t be dying anytime soon from carbon monoxide. He kept...