Gas, not Mice

On Saturday the igniter for my gas cooktop shorted out. My first reaction was to go downstairs to the basement to flip the circuit breaker, and then I remembered we have fuses, not circuit breakers.

Normally you can yank a fuse, but the labels on the fuses were circa 1950, and some appliances we not longer have: i.e. "Can Opener." That might have been the right fuse, but at that point I just went back upstairs, broke the plastic clips on the Ikea drawers under the cooktop with my needle-nose pliers, and pulled the plug. It was then that I smelled gas, but I assumed it was the connector above the valve to the cooktop. Since I plan to toss the cooktop, I figured I would call the gas company Monday and report the leak, they would come out with the bubble solution, check the connector, and close the valve.

So out comes the technician this morning, and his sniffer finds gas..not at the connector, not at the valve, but coming up from the basement. Nooooo. It was a T valve right in the middle of water lines, the house vacuum, and ductwork AND a joist, but he was "pretty sure" it was that one. He put a tag on it, shut off the main, told me to call a plumber, and left. So the plumber comes an hour later, and he is baffled by the technical challenge of rethreading the pipe with no room. But he finally puzzled it out, and reached up with a tool to undo the T valve..and it just came off. It was just finger-tight on there. Who knows how long it's been like that? I always thought the smell down there was mice or the sump pit, not gas. It's fixed now, and it doesn't smell down there any more. And I have hot water again, if no stove. But 4 minutes in the microwave makes water hot enough for a pot of coffee.

Hopefully more sewing will get done tonight, though I am sort of tired right now.