I don't like winter sometimes...

Yikes. Got a little colder than I was expecting.
When I wrote about winter on Friday morning, I had no idea what was coming. I've gotten into this habit of somewhat ignoring the local weather forecasters, because, well, they kinda suck. I gave up on them long ago. Should have been paying attention this time though.

So on friday morning I checked the guage on the propane tank and it was reading "15%", which is usually really "25%", cause the tank is old and the gauge on it has issues. Been after the company that owns it for a couple of years to do something with it, but hey, I'm resourcefull, and just dealt with it. Add ten per-cent. No problem.
And it got COLD cold, not " man it's kinda crispy out there this evening", but, "holy crap it's friggin COLD!" Needle bottomed at -5F, which I can deal with, lived in places that got a lot colder than that regularly. But the wind was brutal, and this old house ain't the most air-tight structure I've lived in. SO, had a few frozen pipes, that I caught before it got serious, so no biggie. But it pushes the stress level up for sure.

Saturday morning, after the furnace going non-stop pretty much all night, figured I better go out and check the tank. 15%.
Oh-oh... gave the guage a tap with my flashlight... ker-plunk. Float on the guage bounces off the bottom. I heard that before. it bounced though, so there's a little liquid, but the guage is sayin zero. And the temp is dropping again. Go into "emergency keep warm mode", call the propane folks, and spend saturday and sunday paranoid about the gas running out and stressed-out as far as I care to be. Kinda blew the whole weekend and the "I like winter" deal.

Well, it held out till monday night, and the propane guy got here, and he's a great guy, blew-off the 50 dollar emergency fill charge cause he's fully aware of the tank being in need of replacing and just as unhappy about it as we are. Cool, nice to have somebody on our side for once. SO we gave him some chocolate cupcakes and he dug it, some carbs to get him through the rest of the night.

Still cold, a few more days at least likely, but the tank is full, house is warm more-or-less, and my heart isn't pounding today. It's a drag though, how something as silly as a sticky guage can really turn something from being a minor inconvienience into something pretty major, and extremely stressful. Blew the whole weekend for me, can't sleep, and it feels like being backed into a corner, which I definately don't like.
Got no work done this weekend either, which is a drag. REal-life got in the way big-time.

Well, manager and I at the propane place are gonna have to have a talk this week. I figure it's not likely going to be all good. But after two years, and this being the second time I got burned by this old propane tank, which belongs to THEM, not me, guess I'm going to have to transfer some of the stress his way. Hey, guages on MY tanks all work fine.

So I guess I still like winter. Propane company, not so much.