Things I Never Knew Because I'd Never Needed To Know, Part the Nth

Today I discovered that some water heaters are heated by gas instead of electricity, and in fact the one in my house is one of those. I discovered that the hard way this morning, when I went to wash a butter dish, and the water kept not getting hot. I finally managed to get it clean in cold water by using lots and lots of dish soap. (My morning ablutions should have been the first clue, but I was done quickly enough that I thought it was just taking a long time to warm up.)

Inspired by a wild surmise, I tried to turn on the gas burner on the stove. Lots of clicks, but no gas.

I went to the front door, and sure enough, there was a notice from the gas company saying that they'd had to turn off the gas because of the construction work on our block, and I would need to be home to have it reconnected. (I was out of town from Wednesday to Sunday.) I called, and was told someone would be there today to take care of it. That was about 12 hours ago. I called around 6:30 pm to see what the story was, and was told that the repair person could be there as late as 10:00 pm. So I stayed home and ordered pizza instead of going out for dinner as planned. There's still 80 minutes before they've defaulted. ("Waiting for the Gas Man or Someone Like Him" just doesn't have the same ring to it...)

ETA: He arrived at 10:20, and departed at 10:40 with everything hooked up again.