curled up close to fire

curled up close to fire

in buckets of tinder our cats

on the coldest night

On the coldest night of the new year (-13 F; -25 C), we ran out of propane. We could have gotten by without LP gas for cooking or washing, but on such a cold night we really needed the fuel to keep the water circulating in our in-floor heating system. 
          John was having trouble keeping the pilot light lit on the hot water heater, so he went out to check the gauge on the propane tank. It read 30 percent, but he thought it was stuck because it hadn't moved in months. Maybe it was close to empty.
          I was smelling that rotten egg smell of leaking gas and getting nervous. When you smell that odor, you're supposed to do two things: call the LP company and vacate the house.
          John called the LP company. They must have had a lot of calls that day, but they put us on their top priority list. Well, we didn't immediately vacate the house and for once I was glad, even on this bitterly cold night, that our leaky windows keep the house well ventilated. John placed a small electric heater in front of the hot water heater to keep the pipes from freezing and I kept the wood burning stove stoked, which barely made a small circle of warmth. Our cats curled up in buckets of tinder on either side of the stove, as close as they could get to the radiant heat.
          It was getting late and still no LP truck. Finally at 10:30, John couldn't even light the burners on the gas range. We're completely out, he said, and called the gas company's emergency number. At 11:00, a guy showed up and the men went out to the propane tank. The gas man couldn't get the bolts off the gauge, so he went back to his truck and came back with a hammer. He gave the gauge a good whack and it popped open. Sure enough, we were down to fumes.
          While the gas man filled the tank, he explained that the sulfur smell was not due to a leak. Of course, we already knew that they add a chemical to make propane, an odorless gas, have a detectable odor. He said the chemical is called ethyl mercaptan and it is so effective that they only need to add a tiny amount, about 1 to 1.5 pounds per 10,000 gallons of propane. It's heavier than propane, so it sinks to the bottom of the tank, and that's why, he explained, you smell a lot of the odorant when you're drawing from the bottom. That's also why they try to fill the tank when you're down to 25 percent, but since our gauge was stuck, nobody knew it was so low. So thank goodness, we weren't in any danger of asphyxiation or an explosion!