When it rains...or snows...

Well, after a pretty awesome week--not without speed bumps, but generally upward-moving--the wheels fell off the bus spectacularly last night. I'm sitting in my living room wearing three layers and a scarf and fingerless gloves; the temperature in here is 51 degrees. Beast fell last night and broke the gas pipe into the house just before the shutoff, so it had to be shut off outside. Except, yeah, I don't (didn't) remember where to do that, and he was too wacko from the fumes (among other things) to give me any direction. I woke up at about 1:15 needing to pee, smelled that wonderful 'gas additive' smell, and got the doors open to air things out and called the fire department who arrived and evacuated us both, opened all the windows in the house, and found the main shut-off. Beast went to the hospital because he was so spacey, and had been right next to the leak for who-knows how long. I sat in the police car till the gas company representative arrived to check for any remaining leaks, cap the pipe, and give the all-clear. I got to the hospital at about 4:30, hung out till I talked to the doctor just before 6, left to make assorted calls (my workplace, Beast's workplace, doctor's office to cancel my appt. and try to reschedule, etc.), and to try to get repairs started. Am currently operating on about 2 hours' worth of sleep, caffeine, and the dregs of adrenaline as I wait for a couple of friends who think they can probably fix the pipe to arrive and scope things out. I may need to call a plumber. And of course at some point I need to see if Beast is coming home today.

Having typed all that, I think my next move is to go get actual gloves because my hands are cold. I'm actually starting to have those deep shivers that start near my core.

.....

Well, the first angel arrived and he thinks this should be fixable by amateurs, at least in the short run (pun totally intended, because this piping has been an issue since we moved in and needs to be a longer run...so that this exact thing wouldn't happen). He's off to the hardware store, and I'm going to get the space heater that's been in my bedroom to take the chill off at night. I can put that here in the living room and be more comfortable. What reminded me? The fact that the basement is warmer than the rest of the house and I finally realized it's because there's a space heater down there boosting the ambient temp all the way up to about 55. Maybe even 60!

P'raps I'll grab a catnap while I wait for repairs to be effected. It's up to 52 in here, thanks to the oven (electric) being on and open in the kitchen.