When It Rains.....

It pours. Or to quote John Lennon, "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans"......

We live in what is commonly called a "twin" here on the east coast, also known as a "shotgun house"; one of those long, narrow dwellings built over a century ago (1892 to be exact), with a wall adjoining the other half of the dwelling, and set very close to the street. Our next door neighbors are renters, and apparently their landlord hasn't cleaned their furnace in about five years. Predictably, it quit working. Yesterday. When repairmen were finally called in to fix it, it backfired badly, kicking smoke all over their house and - via the basement and return ducts - ours. LOTS of smoke. At which point the repair guys left, refusing to complete the repair because it would necessitate paying someone overtime.

Now, said neighbor is a kind soul, but assertiveness is not a word that leaps to mind when describing him. So....rather than see them remain without heat for several days, I called their property management company (also hired by their landlord) and threatened to call the fire department and the EPA if they didn't fix my neighbor's furnace. They assured me they'd take care of it. In the meantime, I developed a very bad sore throat, and John became dizzy. So we called the fire department anyway, just to be on the safe side.

Which turned out to be a good call. They told us to get outside immediately, showed up with fire trucks, police, etc., shut down the street, took carbon monoxide readings (which were positive), set up huge fans and blew out both houses. After which (and after explaining John's upcoming heart surgery) they sent us to the emergency room to be tested, and we BOTH tested with carbon monoxide levels equivilent to that of heavy smokers - NOT GOOD, and we spent several hours in the ER wearing oxygen masks. No clue where our neighbor went, but we didn't see him at the hospital.

Big fun.

Fast forward to today, when at the request of the ER doc, we informed John's surgeon of yesterday's doings. And guess what?

The surgery which was scheduled tomorrow morning is now postponed until next week. They want to give it time for everything to "clear".

We are NOT happy campers. John was soooooooo ready to get this over and done.....

So thank you all for the thoughts and prayers and please keep them coming. I'll post updates and send emails as we find out anything new. We may have a new surgery date as soon as tomorrow, not sure. Stay tuned....

~ Carolee