Saturday, January 17, 2009

What I Learned on This Cold, Cold Day

My nose felt extra cold when I woke up today. I climbed out of bed, and on my way to the coffee pot, I glanced at the thermostat and it read 52. Huh? I blinked and looked again. Still 52 degrees. I had it set at 62, because I like to sleep in a cool house. 52 is not cool. 52 is cold.

I had run out of propane, which is what my furnace uses. I have these 2 big tanks in my back yard, and they get filled on a regular schedule, but sometimes the weather disrupts that schedule and I run out. An unpleasant side effect of the tanks running out is that your house fills with a smell that is very close to rotten eggs or what I'd imagine wild boar farts to smell like.

I called the gas guys immediately, and I got their answering service. The first person who answered was sort of cheeky. I explained to her that I was completely out of gas, and she informed me that, "Lady, everybody who's calling today is completely out of gas" to which I replied, "well if you guys can't anticipate that customers might run out of gas faster when we have a cold snap it's really not my problem that you're not on the ball blah-blah-blah"...and she just says "hold please" and puts me on hold for a really, really long time.

So now what do I do? Now I have been condescending and snotty to the woman who can hook me up with heat juice. The only thing to do is hang up, call back, and hopefully get another operator. Or if I get the same one, I have to disguise my voice and sound really solicitous.

Got a different operator the next time. I was nice from the get-go, and gee whiz, she was nice to me! Isn't that funny how that works? I still had to wait until 2:30 today to get my propane, and the house took another 3 hours to heat back up. It had gotten down to 47.

Things are just about back to normal now, and I have learned a valuable lesson.
Be nice to the operator and she'll be nice to you?
No.
When you know that cold weather is coming, check your propane tanks and make sure you have enough, because the propane people aren't bright enough to do that.

7 comments:

Alex said...

Baby, I have 2 little ovens that would happily cuddle up with you, anytime. Now can you get back to cooking already????

Left-handed Batter said...

I've always been a proponent of strategic, surgical-strike bitching. I've personally been in too many situations where the squeaky wheel did indeed get the grease.

Stella said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Stella said...

I cannot even imagine a world where you became sassy to the nice gas lady......surely, you were too hard on yourself and the nice gas lady simply forgot to take you from the holding position.....XOXO
(deleted the original...forgot to give you a hint as to who this might be....susie-q...stella...lover of all things donny :)

Jacquie O. said...

I like you when you are sassy!

Amy Gethins Sullivan said...

~Always being nice is hard to do~
sometimes we just neeeed to get snippy~
"take that stranger on the phone- you wanna piece this?""I didn't think so"
:)
~Amy~

Janine Serresseque said...

Susie, I love you like crazy! You are dear to read my blog and I love you for it. Stella Stankowitz, you are a goddess. Please pick your best recipe, as you are an amazing cook, and please do a guest post. Please.