(no subject)

[inahandbasket]

Holy shit that was scary.

Came home at 11ish from an evening of playing Magic: The Gathering (yes, the card game) with some fellow old-school dorks, got dropped off at the apartment, walked up the steps and opened the door. Thereup, I was greeted by the overwhelming stench of natural gas.*
Freaked out, I ran into the bedroom and started shaking my dear prosicated, who didn't respond for a good 5 seconds. As you can imagine I was duly freaking at this point, but true to my form I wasn't shouting but just quietly... well... freaked out.

Finally she did wake up, and said "oh god, it does smell like gas in here..."
Like I needed the vindication. I almost had a headache already from the strength of it.

As it turns out, one of the burners wasn't all the way turned off, and had been slowly leaking for a number of hours into the apartment.
The cats are both fine, prosicated is also fine (and already back asleep), but damn that was a scary moment. I won't be sleeping for at least another hour, by then hopefully my heart will have stopped pounding.


*Yes, I know natural gas is odorless, but they cut it with methane for just such occurances. So you can smell leaks.

Comments

[pisceandreamer.livejournal.com]

Damn, that is very scary. Glad you're both OK.

[bluewillowtree.livejournal.com]

Eek, that is very scary! I'm so glad you guys are all right!

[komos.livejournal.com]

Damn, man. The both of you stay safe.

[cobaltnine.livejournal.com]

And now I go and check my damn burners. Thank you for reminding me that I'm afraid of my stove.

I grew up with electric, this invisible explosive thing freaks me the fuck out, especially given the churrosplosion of yesterday.

[inahandbasket]

I grew up with electric too, but I totally prefer gas for cooking.
And I'm super-sensitive to the smell of gas as a result, which is good because I can always tell if there's gas leaking anywhere. ^_^

[foleyartist1.livejournal.com]

I am so glad both of you are okay!!!!

[rainbow-spork.livejournal.com]

Um... that would sure explain the sleepiness of both of us, and yet why i wasn't sleepy once i got home. Yikes! I feel bad that I left her there! I swear it wasn't for very long!

Wow. Very, very, very glad you came home when you did. And feeling remarkably stupid (a more than a little freaked) for not noticing. sorry?

[inahandbasket]

Not surprised you didn't notice, it must've been a hell of a slow leak, and your nose simply got aclimated to it. No need to feel bad!

[rainbow-spork.livejournal.com]

But I left at 10, and you got home at 11... but we Meg stopped cooking at like, 8. I'm just surprised that it would've gotten so much worse in the last hour, you know? But yeah, I guess we acclimated.

[rainbow-spork.livejournal.com]

Also, how funny that I'm sitting here feeling guilty, when in theory, another appropriate reaction would be to get mad at prosicated for trying to kill me! =)

[sun-set-bravely.livejournal.com]

Holy shit! That's terrifying. I'm so glad that everyone's okay. Snuggle that woman extra close tonight!

[inahandbasket]

Oh I did. ^_^

Sorry!!! I didn't mean to be a stupidhead!

[prosicated.livejournal.com]

(but just to get nowhere near even? Gas doesn't leek, it leaks.)

I had a rip-roaring headache by the time you woke me up, too. So glad I didn't sicken the cats or anything with my stupid. Back to being terrified of the 60 year old stove for me, then.

Re: Sorry!!! I didn't mean to be a stupidhead!

[inahandbasket]

Grrr...
Hold me accountable for sleepy homophone errors, will you?
Fine, I see how it is.
*plots grammatical revenge*

Re: Sorry!!! I didn't mean to be a stupidhead!

[wanderyng1.livejournal.com]

But for some, leeks do cause gas.

Re: Sorry!!! I didn't mean to be a stupidhead!

[inahandbasket]

"Very deep. You should send that in to Reader's Digest, they have a page for people like you..."

Re: Sorry!!! I didn't mean to be a stupidhead!

[wanderyng1.livejournal.com]

FUNNY MAN!!

Capital letters were always the best way of dealing with things you didn't have a good answer to.
(another Douglas Adams quote)

Re: Sorry!!! I didn't mean to be a stupidhead!

[inahandbasket]

I'm sure you've heard this one, but it's always been my favorite.

"My absolute favorite piece of information is the fact that young sloths are so inept that they frequently grab their own arms and legs instead of tree branches and fall out of trees." -DA

Re: Sorry!!! I didn't mean to be a stupidhead!

[wanderyng1.livejournal.com]

Bwahahaha...I hadn't actually. That's awesome :)

Re: Sorry!!! I didn't mean to be a stupidhead!

[inahandbasket]

It just conjures up a mental image soooo perfectly.

[wanderyng1.livejournal.com]

Yikes! OK if you didn't really want to meet me, I'm sure there were better ways out of this than suffocating yourself and Meg.

Also (because I'm a science geek) it's actually ehtyl mercaptan that provides the nasty smell that natural gas has. Pure methane is odorless...they add ethyl mercaptan to that as well.

[inahandbasket]

fascinating, good to know!
I'd always heard that it was methane they added. hunh!
*research*
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_gas

NG is apparently mostly methane, so it's certainly not a trace additive.
learn something new every day...


(and it wasn't my fault! she and rainbowspork cooked while I was out!)

[wanderyng1.livejournal.com]

Yeah, most of the "-ane" gasses are odorless (and generally colorless) which is why almost all of them have some type of odorant added. I want to say the mercaptan is detectable at .01 parts per million or something along those lines. It's very odiferous.

If I do any late night cooking while I'm there I'll be sure to turn off the stove.

On an unrelated note, should I bring a deck of Magic cards with me? It's been eons since I've played but I still have some good stuff.

[inahandbasket]

Sure! I only have one deck right now, all my old cards are still in repose at my parent's house outside Philly. But if you're down for some old-school dorkiness, grab a deck or two.
Maybe we'll even send the girls out one evening, round up the usual suspects, and you can meet some Boston geeks while we all get our game on. ^_^

[wanderyng1.livejournal.com]

Mine as well are still hanging out at my parent's house. I'll have to invite myself over for dinner one evening so I can get at the cards and build a deck. I'm sure the ladies would love a chance to get away from the dorkiness for the evening so that wouldn't be too hard to swing.

[askeladden.livejournal.com]

That settles it. I am so freaking visiting you guys in Boston. Soon. Haven't played Magic in donkey's years!

[inahandbasket]

bwahahahaha!
soooooon my precious, we will lure THEM ALL BACK!

[rainbow-spork.livejournal.com]

That sound you hear is me laughing at the notion that I contributed in anyway to the cooking. Though it was really only reheating anyway.

[locriansax.livejournal.com]

do you have a carbon monoxide alarm?
I'm just wondering if that would have set it off.
(if you don't, your landlord is requried by new Mass law to install one)

[inahandbasket]

Yup, and it didn't go off.
No carbon monoxide in natural gas. ;-)

[locriansax.livejournal.com]

yeah, that's what I would have guessed.
you'd have thought they'd combine the CO dectector with one that can also catch natural gas.

nice red meat btw.

[sykii.livejournal.com]

YIKES!!! Glad you're all okay.

[paperpath.livejournal.com]

Nothing so scary as an unresponsive sweetie.. (shudder)

I'm glad that you're both okay though. Please buy one of those gsa detecting alarms. They're similar, I believe, to smoke detectors and can likely be purchased at a decent hardware store. (Or maybe through the gas company?)

Yep, really glad you two are okay.

[inahandbasket]

We have a Carbon Monoxide detector, but that don't do crap for Natural Gas. I don't know that there is a Nat Gas detector, but I'll definitely look into it. ^_^

[paperpath.livejournal.com]

Hmm.. maybe I'm thinking bout the CO detector... still, it couldn't hurt to look into a gas detector, right?

[inahandbasket]

zactly.

[wisdom-seeker.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow, definitely scary! Don't they sell gas detectors, like smoke detectors but for natural gas, for just such situations (i.e., when you're sleeping like Meg was)? Maybe a good idea to get one. Come to think of it, we could probably use one, too...

[greyhoundliz.livejournal.com]

*hugs*

scary! i'm so glad you're both ok!

*more hugs*

[oceanic.livejournal.com]

[breathes in, breathes out]
whew. Yeah. That's... bad. I can't even imagine finding that scenario, and you know my imagination.

Thank god for things being okay, and I hug the daylights out of both of you. :)

[krues8dr.livejournal.com]

See, Magic the Gathering *is* the silent killer. They always warned us about that in high school.

[bunnyroo.livejournal.com]

since my first thought of a comment besides the glad-you're-not-dead line of things was that dorkdork kills and that's already been added here, i'll just throw in that yes, there are natural gas detectors. we had one in my house growing up. not a bad thing to have around, i imagine.

[moira-kathleen.livejournal.com]

Gah! So scary.

[jimmi-obadger.livejournal.com]

Very, very glad you are a neither suffocated nor dead of shock. Feeling slightly vindicated for being as paranoid as i am about checking the stove.