This week my stove stopped working. I noticed it was ominously cold and when I turned the knobs for the range top, no flames came out. For a number of minutes I tried to relight the pilot before I realized it was impossible because there was nothing to light. Now as it happens, my rent covers heat and hot water. For whatever reason it doesn't cover cooking. That's part of the electric bill. Only you have to open a separate account, for some reason, I guess because nothing can be simple. I did that the next day but had to be home for the gas men today, and could only get a very loose timeframe: between 8AM and 8PM. Not really the way I'd choose to take a day off.
When that was done - and they made good quick work of it, I have to say - I went out to Stop & Shop for something I'll need for Friday's dinner. I figured it would be quickest to hit the one on West River St here in Providence. Wow. Talk about an area that's not for pedestrians. There'd been no shoveling most of the way I had to walk, and today we had snow on top of snow, followed by heavy rain. So you had deep snowbanks, huge slush puddles... and a seriously flooded stretch of road somewhere between 60 and 80 feet long. West River Street indeed.
Just so this isn't just a litany of bummers, I recently updated the blogroll to include Nathanael Booth's new site. It used to have his old blog, generalthinker.blogspot.com. When he stopped updating that I was afraid he'd quit. Booth is a canny thinker on mystery fiction and other stuff, so it's good to have him around.
2 comments:
It does seem weird that you have a gas stove but you have to make a separate account with the electric company. All utility companies use the 'wait all day' method of punishing their customers but, even so, I'm glad you got re-lit. Miserable way to start a cold winter's day without a hot drink.
It has been a pretty wild winter this year, hasn't it? We've had had a fair amount of heavy snow too and all of it followed fairly soon after by rains heavy enough to wash most of it away. I thought people were supposed to shovel their sidewalks?
Nathanael Booth looks to be an interesting observer of mysteries. I'll go back and check on what else he has to say.
I'm not sure if the "wait all day" command is a matter of bad planning or if it's a power trip. It's probably more annoying to the customer than it is gratifying for the provider.
This winter we've gotten significant buildup. Which is fine in some areas, but... The city has seemingly been skimping on plowing and hardly put down sand at all. It can be frustrating.
Nathanael booth has apparently been off for a few weeks again. Should make for some good reads when he is back in the swing, hopefully.
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