I’ve been sick the last few days with something like a bad cold. Last night, I began to have trouble breathing, so I went to the hospital as a patient instead of the Director. Bottom line is I got an inhaler to help with the breathing, and instructions to take it easy for a couple of days. No problem, right?
So I ran out of hot water today. My first thought was, “What? I just changed the gas tank!!” But when I looked at the date on my spreadsheet, it had been 23 days, a few more days than the average.
We use bottled gas here. The tanks are about twice the size of the tanks on a conventional gas grill in the US, and they cost $2.00 each. The Guest House, about 50 yards away, has a supply so I usually get mine from there, and pay for them at the hospital.
So I dragged myself out, got our little red wagon, hauled the empty one out, got a full one from the guest house and changed the tank. I couldn’t get the pilot on the hot water tank to light. So I fiddled a while, and it still wouldn’t light. OK, a bum tank I thought. It happens once in a while. So I dragged the full one back to the guest house and got another full one. Still no luck. I’m running out of energy, but I need hot water.
OK, what next? Did I get two bum tanks? Let me swap it with the gas tank that runs the dryer. I know that one works. Tried that and it still wouldn’t light.
Next? Maybe the valve that attaches to the gas tank all of a sudden went bad. So I took the valve off the dryer tank and put it on the water tank and voila! It lit!!
I was going to try to go out and get another valve, but I just don’t have the energy. I don’t think I’ll need to use the dryer until next week. I can wait.
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