i've got a terrible case of gas...company

generally one of the more depressing moments each winter month is when i open my gas bill. you're probably thinking, but dicta, what about your credit card bill, surely it must be more than the gas bill. while this is mostly true, at least i derive some sort of pleasure out of many of the things i purchase with my credit card. gas however, only provides me with warmth. and if there's one thing bums have taught us, it's that gas heat could easily be replaced by either booze or a fire in a barrel.

but i occasionally need to be sober for law school, and i dont have a barrel, so gas heat it is. so you can imagine my surprise and anger when i opened a $403.11 bill for the billing period of Dec 16-Jan 18. honestly, what the fuck. to make matters worse my thermostat was set to 55 degrees most of that billing period, as i was not here for winter break from Dec 17-Jan 4. obviously, the first thing i did was call the gas company in a fit of controlled rage.

it seems the problem could be 1 of 4 things. first, it might be that my landlord has a really old furnace and that my apartment is somewhat drafty. odds of convincing the landlord to buy a new furnace? not good. fuck. second, i might be paying for someone else's gas. the lady told me that they could send someone out here to trace the wires, but it costs $66. not just yet. third, it's possible that my meter is broken. for $70, they will take the meter to [state]'s capital, and allow me to personally be there while they check it. 98% of checked meters are fine (and 65% of all statistics are made up). finally, maybe the meter was read incorrectly. and since it's free to have them send someone out here to re-read it, that's what i've done. meanwhile, i've filed a dispute of the bill, which most likely only delays payment.

furthermore, i have old school radiators in my apartment, so i can easily hear when the heat kicks on and off. while i set my thermostat to about 68 or 69 each day, it consistently reads 63-65 during the daytime. usually, for some unknown reason, at night it decides to start working despite the fact i dont adjust it, and brings the temperature up from 64 to about the 68 or 69 i want. but according to gas lady, this is irrelevant. she gave me a brief weather lesson regarding wind chill (if you know how much i loathe meteorology you can imagine how painful it was for me to politely sit thru this), then told me that it doesnt matter if the heat doesnt kick on because sometimes if it's a low wind chill out the furnace and hot water heater will stay on all day anyway. so despite the fact that my apartment remains at a chilly 64, i have to pay for it. booze/garbage fire is looking better and better.

i'm considering the $66 line tracing because last fall when i moved in there was some confusion with the company and my landlord about my apartment number and which meter it corresponded to. but that might just be because from what i can gather, both my landlord and the gas company are fucking retarded. so it might not mean anything. and i dont really want to be out $66 more unless i can be pretty sure i'm right. but it could save me a lot in jan/feb/mar, so i dont know. all i do know is that if my bills stay like this, someone is going to get cut. bad.