Thursday night the gas was shut off because of a gas leak. The problem was tagged and fixed the next morning.

Today, Monday, we got a letter in the mail from the gas company stating that if we didn't fix the problem with our appliance, we would die.

Gee, I'm glad I got that letter in the mail. I wonder what would have happened if the guy had decided to say the heck with it, not tag the furnace that night, and we'd had to go four days without the letter?

Ah, Columbia Gas. While your technicians are nice guys, the rest of you could use some work.

I had another incident with Columbia Gas once, in another city.

I lived in a house that was divided into three apartments. Each apartment had its own mini-furnace. Our downstairs neighbor, Pepper, had been having a problem with his billing. He mailed a check which was cashed, but they were calling him and threatening to shut his gas off. Well, one day in the middle of a snowstorm, the gas company came out and shut off ALL THREE FURNACES. Despite the fact that Pepper was brandishing a cancelled check, they still didn't have authorization to turn the heat on. This went on for hours. Our apartments were not warm to begin with, I was living in the snow belt (you Ohioans know exactly the horror I'm talking about) and it was forty degrees INSIDE. We decided to solve the problem by putting on lots and lots of clothes and drinking. Eventually the heat turned back on, but not before half of the residents were good and drunk. It took my roommate an hour on the phone to get them to give us a credit to compensate for their error.

I'm sure four days later we received a letter saying they were going to come shut off our gas, although I don't remember, probably because of the booze.

I think my next place of residency will be a dugout and I will rely on geothermal heating and cooling.