A Sonic Boom! (February)

One of the reasons my new house in the city feels like paradise is the gas heater in my living room. Fortunately for me, after PCV L moved out, my landlord replaced the old wood stove with a radiator style heater. Which was probably a good life choice on his part. If I’d had to figure out how to light the gas in a wood-burning style stove I would have probably burned the house down.

My landlady was (rightfully) skeptical of my ability to light the gas heater even with the improved heating unit. So for the first few weeks that I lived in my house, she would always light the pech (stove/heater) for me before I got home from school. Which had the added benefit of making the house warm BEFORE I walked through the door at 6PM.

But after a few weekends and tutorial from a PCV far more adept in pech-lighting than I will ever be, I was confident in my pech-lighting ability. The Golden Rule: Light the paper BEFORE turning on the gas. Pretty straight-forward. As long as you can get the paper to stay lit, while the gas cycles through the pipes.

Until a Thursday afternoon in February…

My landlady and I spent a few hours in her kitchen talking about various kitchen inspired topics. (Oh! Future blog post…) Then one of the neighbour’s kids came over to ask some questions about her Russian homework. So I went downstairs and set about lighting the pech by myself.

But the paper was refusing to stay lit. So I had to try a second time. Still didn’t work. So I tried to get it to catch a third time. (It may have been the fourth try. Counting has never been my strong point). And this time I was rewarded with a SONIC BOOM!
(Font is supposed to convey the KA-BOOM factor). It shook the glass. And brought my landlady running downstairs. (The nieghbour’s kid watched over the balcony half-hidden). But there was no giant fire ball. I still had all my limbs and eyebrows.
Of course my pride was a little bit worse for wear after the scolding I got from my landlady.

Needless to say I was taken off pech-lighting duty for another few weeks.

Also, as a result of this, I officially admire the people who do stuff with the speed of sound for a living. It can’t be good for the ear drums or the nerves.