IKEA and the Gas Leak

13-mar. tom, troy, mitch & i all made the semi-annual pilgrimage to mecca (IKEA) to stock up on things we need (and more things that we really DON'T need). i needed to get some lighting for the condo & house, i also bought some bedding for the weekend house as well & other random things. luckily i made it out with only spending $127.

sat night i took the 21.15 train to MCI (the drunkest train ever), train was pretty full with st. patrick's day revelers. arrived at house just after 23.00. sat night i unpacked all the new buys from IKEA and was in bed shortly after midnight.

14-mar. daylight savings time begins. slept in until about 11am. then headed outside to work on the exterior. i finished removing the furring strips on the lower portion of all exterior walls. the last part to be done was in the area around the gas meter. as i was working, i smelled leaking gas. luckily, the gas company promptly responded to my emergency call. while the meter was indeed leaking a little on the top, they were unable to fix it. nipsco has to install a new meter this week. the leak wasn't major so there was no need to shut off the gas service entirely until repair. i will need to contact them next weekend to have the service turned back on & the furnace pilot light re-lit. the guy assured me they would come on the weekend to do this, but i'm not so sure, since i originally had to take a monday off from work to be there so they could do the exact same thing. given the circumstance though, they make acception here.

the gas leak pretty much put an end to my work for the afternoon. i did discover some insect damage on the front & back porches, it looks like there was some carpenter ant action going on. the damage looks old & not recent, but i'll still be having exterminator out to check things out (had planned it anyway).

returned on the 17.30 train back to chicago.