Sometimes you feel like a nut...

I was lying on the sofa in my living room watching TV around 1:15am when I realized I was cold. Now, usually in the house, I wear a t-shirt and shorts, but tonight I had jeans a shirt and socks on. So I started getting cold but didn't worry about it.

About 5 minutes later, I smelled this musty-type smell. I ignored it, but it started getting stronger. I put two-and-two together, and looked at the thermostat on the wall. It was set at about 70 degrees, but the actual temperature read about 60 degrees.

The drop in temperature and the sudden intensifying smell led me to one conclusion: the heater stopped working but the gas continued to run, thus creating a gas leak.

OH SHIT!!!

I went upstairs and woke up my one roommate who was at home. As soon as he stepped out of his room, he complained how bad it stank. I called the gas company and they turned off the gas to the house and told me someone would come out within an hour. I then called the landlord company to see what they could do.

So in the interim, I opened all the windows downstairs (had the door wide open til my roommate reminded me of the skunk that roams the neighborhood--needless to say, the door quickly closed).

The gas guys get here and look at me like I'm stupid and ask what the problem is. I told them what I thought and they went into the laundry room (with the heater) and they looked at the heater. They tell me it needs to be cleaned because it's full of dust and keeps shutting on & off (funny...this is the same problem we had multiple time last year--and the landlord decided to do minimal cleaning instead of the full cleaning the HVAC company recommended). And they said they didn't smell gas at all.

Now, the odor is still very pungent throughout the whole house and if it wasn't gas, what the hell was it? Suddenly, my brain started to function and I said I knew exactly what it was (it was only me & my roommate here at this point).

What was it you may ask? The dishwasher was running & a plastic spatula fell through the racks and melted on the heating element. Yup...something as simple as that.

It was just a great coincidence. The heater stopped working at the same time the plastic spatula melted in the dishwasher filling the house with a strong disgusting odor.

I had to call the landlord back and explain what happened as well as apologize to my roommate for waking him up for nothing.

Sometimes you feel like a nut....and sometimes you feel like a jackass!