Hi friends, what's Christmas without watching the Chevy Chase National Lampoons movie? It's my favourite part of Christmas, it's a relaxing laugh amidst the stress and hassle of the Christmas season. I love the part where the Christmas tree blows up, the sewer gas explodes. What can be more exiting during the festive holidays?
This year, to follow up in Chevy's foot steps, we've had the opportunity of playing out our very own emergency, almost disaster, scene here at home. It happened last night at mid night, just before bed time. For some reason, Wilf decided to step outside to check things out. His urgent call made me run downstairs and out onto the drive way, wearing pyjamas and slippers. On my way down the basement stairs, the stench off gasoline hit me immediately. Wilf was running by me at top speed, carrying a fire extinguisher in each hand, opening all the windows, yelling " Emergency, we're in trouble, gasoline is running into the drainage". I couldn't believe what I was hearing, but a look under the Hyundai immediately told the story. It was leaking petrol, a lot of it. The car had been parked half way under the car port, just over the spot were the drainage system was guiding excess water, usually dripping from the roof of the car port and garage, into the sump area of the house. From this sump hole, a pump always delivered the water outside to a low lying area. Now, gasoline was draining into this drainage system. Gasoline fumes were accumulating in our basement, family room, making its way up the stairs into the upper areas of the house. To make matters worse, we always have a cosy wood fire burning in the wood stove, that's located in the basement family room. We rushed around the house, opening all the windows and doors, letting the fumes escape. Wilf immediately got busy, moving the car into the garage, jacking it up, checking out the problem. Last week, he'd installed new brake and fuel lines. A clamp worth about 25 cents, holding the fuel line together had broken, causing the leak. Naturally, that same evening needing gasoline, Wilf had filled the tank, which was now almost empty. I rushed around mopping up gasoline out of the drainage hole, then tried to soak up as much gasoline, using old towels, from the drive way as possible. All of this in freezing Ottawa temperatures. We now have nicely polished and clean gravel, but the stink of gasoline its still prevailing. I'm continuously opening windows to air the house, but the emergency has passed. Hopefully, the stink will subside soon. Strangely, we always seem to have some sort of emergency to deal with over the Christmas holidays. But, I know we have a guardian angel looking out for us. Wishing you all a holiday season without excitement of this kind. Merry Christmas Wilf and Liv Haasper /// [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list /// Send admin requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] /// or try http://www.team.net/cgi-bin/majorcool /// Archives at http://www.team.net/archive /// Send list postings to [EMAIL PROTECTED] /// Edit your replies! If they include this trailer, they will NOT be sent.
