Gas, Poison Oak, Weed, and Paranoia

It's been a while.

I just finished getting my ass handed to me by the Atlanta Falcons while playing Madden 08, when I went to the bedroom to pack a bowl. My girlfriend called me up front because she smelled a foul odor. One of the pilot lights was out on the stove, so naturally, being the paranoid stoner's we are, we assumed there was a gas leak. We also became fearful of relighting the pilot out of fear of there being a lot of gas about... resulting in a big boom.
:gunfighter2:

Let me point out, I'm the kind of person that generally, "waits things out." I smell something odd, I decide to wait and see if I feel faint. I try my best, and usually succeed, in pushing the negative thought to the back of my mind... and wait. She does not. Which in turn, makes the hypochondria I try so hard to suppress, muscle it's way to the forefront.

Alas, I decided the best course of action was to go outside and turn the main valve off. All would be well, and I would relight the pilots in the morning.

The gas valve is located on the side of my house, with a swamp 10 ft. away, separated only by a fence... Nay, the remnants of a fence. Naturally, I was fearful of snakes. And so I went, with nothing more than my boxer briefs, flip flops, and my handy heavy duty flashlight.

While waving the beam of light frantically around my feet, I managed to not notice the bushes of poison oak sporadically placed about my path, as well as the beautiful plant strategically placed in front of the valve lever. Strategically placed their by that sick fuck Nature.

I turn the valve off...

Than my mild OCD sets in. When it comes to turning things off, I feel the need to double check that it is off. How I do that is, I turn the object back on, and than off one more time. Only this time, the valve wouldn't turn. The fucking thing was jammed. So I'm yanking on the valve, while at the same time, making sure I don't rip the pipes in half.

I'm not bragging about how strong I am, because I'm not. However, it has already been made clear this system is far from high quality.

So I'm pulling, my girlfriend is yelling, I yell back for her to try, she tries to no avail, we call her dad, he comes over and tells us were over reacting. He leaves.

Now we are sitting here itchy... Actually, as I type this, the itch has subsided greatly. I've managed to avoid contact with this nasty plant for 21 years, perhaps I'm not allergic.

The valve still won't turn off, which is kind of a scary thought in case we will have need for it in the future, but the pilots are now lit, and all that really itches is my right eye.
:S5:
Oh and we were really scared her dad would smell the weed we had been smoking all night... I think the incense, the odd smell, open window, and cigarette smoke, covered the pot smell up effectively.

I also blame this whole situation on the government. There aggressive add campaign about smelling gas and acting fast, really fucked with my mind. They need to cut that shit out. The silent killer...

agree, and agree.

Propane or natural gas, depending on what your stove uses, are odorless. They add sulfur (usually in the form of mercaptans) to it so that you can smell gas leaks. Depending on how old your stove is, shouldn't it shut off its gas flow if the pilot light goes out for a certain amount of time?

It's natural gas and I'm not sure if it shuts off the flow its self. The stove is low end, but only a year old. I figure there is something I could do to the stove to shut it off, but wasn't sure how. I also have no clue where the manual is.

I'm also horrible at identifying smells. I have smelled natural gas before, but am unable to recognize weather what I smell is that. What ever it was though, the smell is gone now.

Who knows, one of our animals may have just had really bad gas.

It might be low end but those safety feature are cheap to build in and are pretty much required this day and age. Most of them have a temperature sensor where the pilot light is, the pilot light goes out, temperature drops, gas flow is cut off. The smell is very distinctive, it smells of rotten eggs. I'm not a mechanic but I have had gas appliances before and I have replaced a ceramic pilot element for a gas heater.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FakeBoobsRule

It might be low end but those safety feature are cheap to build in and are pretty much required this day and age. Most of them have a temperature sensor where the pilot light is, the pilot light goes out, temperature drops, gas flow is cut off. The smell is very distinctive, it smells of rotten eggs. I'm not a mechanic but I have had gas appliances before and I have replaced a ceramic pilot element for a gas heater.

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That sounds right. I didn't figure it was an automatic safety feature though, I thought I would have to do something to the stove.

Poison oak is nasty. I finally found out what poison ivy looks like the hard way yesterday. Itchy!

Luckily, I found out I'm not allergic. It itched real bad for a couple hours and than went away.

From what I read on the internet though, it may take a few encounters with it before you have a bad reaction. I'm going to try not to find out in the future.