Friday, September 30, 2005

Gas leak: confirmed and fixed

When I got this CDC Fellowship and found out I'd be working with smallpox, everyone told me that I could die. Not just from smallpox, but from just living in Atlanta. We all giggled and that was that, but so far I'm getting the feeling that everyone might be right.

I'd mentioned the putative gas leak, and later on I did in fact call the "Emergency Gas Leak Hotline." I babbled on about how I'd never had a gas stove before, which is a complete lie, and told them that I MIGHT smell gas but I wasn't sure, but that my landlords had painted the windows shut, and poor ventilation, and, and... I don't know why I lied to the lady on the phone, and I don't really see how "never having had a gas stove before" would achieve ANY kind of important result. She said, a little sternly, that ANY level of gas fumes should be taken seriously and that she would send someone over within the hour to "check it out and make everything safe."

Safe? Why, I didn't feel in danger. In fact I was pretty sure that I was making the whole thing up. In retrospect, that feeling must have been the effect of the gas fumes eating away at my brain cells.

In just under an hour, a wonderfully pleasant man with a spiritual-looking bead bracelet arrived with a gas detector. He quickly detected a "pretty serious" gas leak in the back of my stove, and showed me that if one brushes soapy water where the leak might be one can observe bubbles forming over the exact location of the leak. The pipe was replaced, and my situation resolved.

Now. I definitely spent a full 24 hours in a severely closed environment with a serious gas leak, and neither I nor my cat died. I'm pretty glad about that, because I think dying alone in a shitty apartment in Atlanta would be just about the worst.

I'd much rather die of smallpox!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

you MUST have sex with this man...but probably not until just before you leave so that it isn't awkward later. then he can be like, "where did that hot scientist move to, she was the best sex I ever had." do it. yeah. I know this is supposed to be an "intellectual" blog, but all I'm going to talk about it sex. sex sex sex...mmm...hahahahahahahaha...I'm laughing in the lab again...

Anonymous said...

Oh dear lord I want to see a picture. I also also want to have sex with this man because I can just picture you demanding him to "name that plane" and then him saying, "I've failed!" in a British accent and being all adorable and hot and...British.

I was in the lab until 10pm on a Friday night and I have a headache...sorry I didn't call you early enough to talk...I'll call you from the road