Out of gas

It's not like I was sitting around the house thinking, "Gee, it's been nearly nine months since I've had a paid service or utility shut off at my place due to situations beyond my control." It's not like I've been taking natural gas for granted. It's not like I did anything to piss off my neighbor. In fact, I never even met her.

But, despite all this, I'm on day four without gas.

Yesterday morning, I had a unwelcome yet effective snap to consciousness when I stepped into my shower for what I assumed was my usual perfect calibration of the water knobs (full blast of hot, quarter turn of cold). In reality, it was ice fucking cold.

I had little choice but to continue the cold shower and wash up. Once out of the shower, dried off and fully dressed, I scrambled around the apartment to find my latest gas bill to make sure I didn't miss a cutoff notice. The most recent one I could find was from last month, which did have a notice, but I could've sworn I had paid it off. I took the bill with me and decided to call the service hotline when I got to work.

I stepped outside and on my way to the car, I saw a slip of paper on the sidewalk with the Oklahoma Natural Gas logo on it. Upon closer inspection, it also had my address on it. It also had Wednesday's date on it. Apparently, I had enough hot water in the tank to let Thursday go by unnoticed.

At work, I called the gas company and checked on the outage. As it turns out, my neighbor had smelled something funny and reported a gas leak. They said the way the lines went through the building that it was possible for my pipes to be the cause of the leak into the other apartment. So, I got shut off, too. They told me to talk to my landlord about when the plumber will be by.

So, I called the landlord. She knew nothing about anything regarding a gas leak. Ooookaaaaayyyy.... The landlord promises to call me back when she knows more.

This morning, another cold shower. I get a call from the landlord and the story gets weirder. Not only did my neighbor detect a gas leak, and not inform me of the problem that could've KILLED ME (!!!), then had the gas comany shut off my service... But she also moved out and skipped out on her lease. According to the landlord, all that remains in the apartment was her couch.

I also couldn't help but notice that the light bulbs in the hallway are missing.

The plumber won't be by until Monday afternoon. Looks like it's microwave meals and questionable hygiene for a couple more days, and I have no one to yell at for the screw-up.