My gas stove

Usually I have fun writing about past events, but tonight I will break that pattern and write about a current event. My life offers so many adventures, that I have learned long ago to just go with the flow and try to stay afloat. I have drowned many times-though I suppose it helps with the writing material!

With my gas stove, I will mention that it has been recent addition to my household and has had its own personality added to my household with just the events that have unfolded around it.

When I purchased the house in 2003 I was very upset about the electric stove. For many reasons. I do love to cook-when I have the time and well, for anyone who cooks-they can appreciate the power of a gas stove. My house in Norton introduced me to one and I had been hooked. So, needless to say-I was sad when I found this house with everything that I fell in love with -absent the gas stove. Also it is an added bonus in an old farmhouse for the extra heat that it brings to that side of the house that tends to be rather cold in the winter and away from the wood stove. It also comes in handy during a power loss when I can still cook-rather than running to dig out my grill under the many feet of snow-which I have done-for pure hunger reasons in past winters up here!

Anyways, I had learned to adjust to this house's lack of gas stove and settled with cooking on the very antiquated electric stove. I knew it was on it's last legs and kind of wished it along. Though with life, things never happen with good timing and this was one of those occasions. By the time that it finally died-I was adjusted financially to a very low budget for the household. I live in an area where the income level is horrific. Though I have adjusted and budgeted accordingly and have relatively few expenses at the current time. Naturally my electric stove did not agree with this and let me know that it was time to die. It did. So then I was left with no stove at all! Be careful what you wish for! I usually get what I wish for but at the worst possible timing-as was the case of my stove.

However, for a short while I just happened to be in a relationship. This is another long blog, which I will save for another time. This relationship was short lived and he was a nice guy (just not the one for me). Thus, it was during this relationship-when he was on the road (he travelled being a welder and happened to be in Pennsylvania) I mentioned my dilemma. He came to my rescue-though I had to wait until he came home-which was two weeks away. That was okay-being a new Mainer (in my heart) I had no problem adjusting. So for two weeks I cooked in a crock pot and purchased a toaster oven as well as the microwave I already had. And with that army of appliances I had assembled an adequate makeshift army and cooked proudly for two weeks on those things until he came home. When he arrived we went straight to Sears and purchased a new stove. It is a really nice one and has 5 burners! I love it and now cook on my Wok happily. I had stored it since I could not use it on my electric stove.

So happily I cooked on my new gas stove for a few months. Now during all of this I had noticed that my two female kittens went into heat and my male kitten did too. I noticed a horrible smell in the house and naturally blamed it on my male kitty as leaving his mark. Though I had searched the house in vain-finding no evidence of this-yet the smell drove me crazy! I went out and purchased air fresheners.

Naturally, I had no idea that the smell could have been something else. I have a wood stove-so did not think of anything like a gas leak as being the issue. Unfortunately with my wonderful luck that is what it turned out to be! I was a little concerned since I had an experience while living in my first house in Attleboro. This event in the past had probaby occurred sometime in the late 90's when I was working at home as a paralegal. My house was in downtown Attleboro and was a pretty little victorian. I was sitting on my couch working on something with my laptop when I heard a loud explosion nearby. The house shook and the windows rattled. I had found out on the news that a gas line had been struck while people were digging nearby and a house had exploded as a result of this! This had occurred a few miles from where I lived, though I felt a lot of that impact and it had terrified me of the power of gas. I was always very cautious since my own houses had all required gas heat and was piped in as well. This propane tank was a whole new ball park. So when I smelled the gas-I wanted to nake sure that the house was safe.

My boyfriend at the time knew all about welding and after we purchased the stove-he had hooked it up and converted it for the propane tank all by himself. This was approved by the gas company when they put in the propane tank. This was all well and good.

Now, the night before, my friend Heather was over and she noticed the smell too. After commenting about it and thinking of what it might be-I checked in the booklet I received and did the scratch and sniff test of what a leak smelled like. Naturally it matched! Now, keep in mind that I have a wood stove and smoke in the house occasionally. Panic set in. This was Tuesday morning when it was finally detected. Tuesday is my normal day off from work and was the day that I had scheduled all of my errands, appointments and work on the farm. I had a booked day and hoped that it might possibly be something else.

That day I had planned to spend at both banks. I keep meticulous track of my accounts since I pretty much live check to check and noticed a discrepancy in both accounts. I had to go to the bank where one of them had some bounced checks first. I had money to cover the checks out and could not afford this. This was my only day off to take care of this matter. So Heather offered to stay at the house while I went to the bank to settle the account. It turned out that someone had taken $70. out without my authorization. So, two hours later-I had taken care of this matter and even signed an affidavit and written statement to have the funds returned. I finally found out that the gas company had called. They had no trucks available until the next say when I had to work! I had a gas leak in my house and had to turn off the tank. So, therefore I had no stove to cook on!

She offered to stay at the house to wait for the gas person to show up to fix the leak-though it was not possible. She had recently gotten into a car accident (she was stopped at a red light and someone rear-ended her vehicle-her car was totalled and the company was coming the next day to pick it up!) So, she was not able to stay and that night my daughter was sick and I knew that I had to keep her home the next day. So, she could not be there for the gas person-I needed to find an adult and my daughter naturally did not qualify for this-being 15. I have no one up here for situations like this and did not know what to do. I have reached a point in my life where instead of panicking-I kind of just accept things. What can one do really? It is what it is.....

So I had a plan to call up work and ask if I can come in late (They do not offer sick days and if I could not find someones shift to replace-then I was out of luck and money that I need). My account was dwindled down due to the bank mishap and I have very little left in it anyways-until it is restored.

That night I had no other choice but to take the girls to McDonald's and then go home to come up with a plan for Wednesday (today). My plan was to call the gas company first thing in the morning to beg them to come out the earlier the better and then to just go in late to work. I knew that this would be a huge sacrifice financially -though could think of no other alternatives.

Now keep in mind that I had a sick daughter at home as well. I had to do my usuall chores and hers as well. She normally takes the sheep out in the field and feeds them and takes the dogs out for their business walk. I also had all of my pre-work chores and I had to bring up a lot of firewood for the next day or two from the basement. This all had to be done, while getting my youngest up, dressed, fed breakfast and off to school. Also I had to make the calls to the gas company, the school to call in for my sick daughter Jacqui, and to call in late to work and to find someone to switch schedules with! I was preparing to go to bed with a stress headache.

That night when I was sinking into my peace mood where I hope that when I wake up things will work out. I have learned long ago not to panic-but to wait and see. Sometimes I wake up with a better plan after I have cleared my head a bit. Before I even had a chance to do that I had received a call from Heather's Mom, Bernice. She had called and offered to sit and wait for the gas company. She had saved all of my problems and I was able to go to bed with a clear head. I slept well. Thanking the stars for good people. Sometimes in Maine when you think you are alone-someone offers a helping hand.

So, I woke up in the morning and was able to take care of all of the business that I needed to do and my sick daughter and know that I did not have to lose any valuable money from the next pay check. I just mentioned to her Mom, Bernice that the limit for the visit was $189. That was all that I had left in my account until the next pay check on the 20th! She had saved us! She assured me that all would be well and she was able to stay here until they arrived.

I went to work and even had a sale on a very slow call volume day. I sell car insurance to people in New Jersey. I came home and found a check from my own car insurance company-apparently I had overpaid them again and received a check for $72.00! I tend to do that. I am nervous about paying all of my bills and actually love it when I am able to cover them all and more. On this occasion-it had arrived at a good time for me.

I did find a receipt from the gas company that they had fixed the leak though it cost me $126.31!! I had expected that. I have also noticed that the sporadic child support that I sometimes receive-had dwindled to nothing and I do not even have that as back up. I had learned long ago-never to count on that. Then again-it is what it is. I am now waiting for that money (the unauthorized amount recently taken) to be returned to my bank account and the overdraft fees reversed.

This was not the first time that someone had gotten into my account this year-earlier I had found out that $248.00 was missing from my account-when I had inquired I had found out that a Phyllis Prewett from Alabama had used my account to cancel her Direct TV! I do not have Direct TV and do not know ANYBODY from Alabama-let alone Phyllis (I had dragged this out from someone at Direct TV-while investigating!)

The current money taken I can wait for. I have learned if nothing else- patience. There is nothing else up here but that and snow! Though currently we are having a heat wave and it actually reached 40 degrees today and I did not have to wear my hat! We might even be getting some rain tomorrow-I almost forgot what that is like and count the days until Spring. I had moved to Maine to escape drama-though it always seems to find me! I learned a few years back not to cry at the sign of trauma-but to tackle it head on and have gotten pretty good at it too. It makes for good writing and gives me somethig to be proud of-yet another trajedy survived! There is nothing that I can do about this and other events, though now I have my wonderful gas stove back!