Never loan your Carbon Monoxide detector to your mother in law without instantly buying a new one.

[pinball]

On 2/27/2024 at 9:05 AM, Faith-manor said:

Mil's CO3 detector, which came from the house, stopped working. It wasn't a battery issue, just a very old, died kind of issue. She was pretty upset about sleeping in the house without one, so Mark took ours up there. He was so busy, he didn't run tot he hardware to buy us a new one, and felt it could wait until he went to the Hardware today. (Took the detector to her on Thursday.)

Saturday (while I was out of town), he felt very weak and headache. Our dog Lewis was lethargic, and then had a seizure. Lewis has never done that before, but he has multiple health problems and is 14.5 years old so we have been expecting more issues with him, not less. Sunday, Mark felt awful, Lewis was definitely lethargic, but he dragged himself out of the house with Lewis to do something at my house and his mom's. Of course being out of the house, they began improving but he didn't link the two. Monday morning he was heating without propane, using our wood boiler, and of course he felt better.

Cue me coming back to town. He didn't want me to have to tend the wood boiler Tuesday since he was going to be working remote from his mom's house. So he shut down the wood boiler, and started us on propane again.

This is when we had our near death experience, and I am not exagerrating this. Thank the universe my bladder woke me up about 3 am. I could smell gas, and realized when I tried to get up, I could barely control my legs. Lewis was fighting for breath, and I was barely able to rouse Mark. He was able to get to the side of the bed, pull himself up to the window sill, and open the window. After standing there for a while breathing in air, he was able to stagger to the basement while holding his breath, turn off the propane. He was able to pick up Lewisz and I was able to hold the walls and support him, and we made to the living room where we flung open the door, breathed deep, and then managed to get the windows open. We sat outside for a while, then came back in and are cuddled under blankets, weak as sheep, again no exaggeration.

I have not felt this weak since our car accident. Mark says he has never been this weak in his life including when he had pleurisy as a teenager.

Called the stitch and ditch ER up the road and asked if we need to be seen. Have no idea who answered, but was told that we were A. Alive, B. Out of danger and C. If improving, the only thing they could do was oxygen mask but it didn't sound necessary. Neither of us can drive, so this would be an ambulance run that our insurance for darn sure is not going to cover, $2000 each to go six miles. So we are just sitting her breathing the fresh air and slowly getting better.

The cat had sneaked outside last night. We had no idea Nana was out. So she burst back inside full of energy when we flung the door open.

I feel like someone who has been run over by a truck. A big truck. 

Check your batteries, make sure your unit is actually still working, and if you can't afford a new one, call your fire department non emergency number because many departments keep a stash to give people.

The headache/migraine is definitely subsiding. Mark called in sick for work so he can just rest. He thinks we may have a squirrel or large bird that fell into the chimney after knocking out the screen protector. The animals do not seem to get that the chimney is a bad, bad playground.

It sounds like your cat isn’t going to be featured on one of those “My Cat Saved My Life” programs.

She was like…”I’m getting out while I still can walk”

[sassenach]

Update us when you can, Faith. I'm a wee bit concerned!

[Halftime Hope]

{{{{Faith and Mark}}} Oh, gosh! I'm so glad you're both alright! My word, what a scare. 

[Faith-manor]

Hi everyone, we are okay. Just insane since this incident!

I want a dull moment. More than one. Many dull moments.

Our youngest, the EE, lost the oil pump on his car, and ended up stranded on 194. He was able to get it towed back to his place of work, and then called a friend who came to get him. But they are in the middle of a big, big push to complete something that sounds kind of geeky, robotics cool by Wednesday and now was NOT a good time for him to miss work while figuring out his transportation situation. So he took an Uber-$60 - to work (45 minutes away so not surprising it cost this much and then he tipped nicely), and I drove the 4 hrs today to pick him up when work was over, and leave my car for him. Mark has borrowed a truck and car dolly, and is headed here now to haul it back home to see if it is only the oil pump or if it blew the head gasket. I think it is head gasket. Ds said he had a 5 gallon jug of oil in the car, and he thought he saw a little drip when he came out of work so he checked it on the dipstick and it was fine. 3 miles down the road, and whammy. He poured a good portion of that oil into the car, and it ran out. Maybe the oil pan and the oil pump? Sigh. Probably the head gasket.

Now we will be shopping for a car for him because he cannot take time off work to find one until they get through the deadline and presentation to the customer. His boss was really happy when he showed up to work today in that uber. He figured today was just a loss.

Pinball, that cat. Nana, we are very attached to miss fuzzy, but I swear she has ZERO loyalty. I am pretty certain not only is she a total "give me the first lifeboat off the Titanic" kind of gal, she would loot the rooms on the way to the boat.

I wish, for all of us, some nice, quiet, no drama, no crisis, dull, sunshiny days!