#between this shit and the mouse infestation and pat himself being a walking sentient pathogen this is only marginally better than the woods

[horce-divorce]

we have had such an exhausting night. first of all, the heater has been out of oil for days, so it's just been the wood stove to heat the house during this storm and it's been miserably cold, its probably in the 50s in our room if I had to guess. we had a space heater in here for most of the winter, but it died a few days ago.

then today around, idk 6 or 7, I came back from the 2nd floor bathroom and noticed this godawful stench. I asked the others if they noticed it and they did as soon as I pointed it out. it was coming from the basement, it was sooo bad and thick down there we actually saw a haze like smoke and we could barely be down there to investigate, it was nauseating. It got so bad so fast that we called the non emergency dept and they sent the fire dept, who brought easily a dozen guys (including volunteers who had specialties in electric, carpentry and a bunch of different areas). three firetrucks, a cop and an ambulance just in case.

they tested the whole house with some kind of gas spectrometer, heat mapped the walls, checked everything outside and around the house, nothing else amiss. everyone could smell it, but nobody could quite place it. we all described something slightly different, but we agreed that it was chemically and burn-y. Bel said he smelled eggs or something rotten. For me it was more like burnt cotton at first, from the upper floors, and then once we got closer, it was distinctly chemical. it lingered on my breath and my clothes the way paint thinner does if you don't wear ppe.

the only way I could describe it was like... idk... I know both how formaldehyde and turpentine smell intensely, id know them anywhere. they're different and very distinct. it was neither of those things, but it reminded me of them strongly. it really, really reminded me of school for some reason.

ultimately they told us that because they couldn't positively identify any gases or fire hazards, we were good to go back inside and just call 911 if anything else goes amiss.

about an hour after that one of the CO detectors in the basement started going off frantically and erratically, but when Thorin went to check it out, it was hanging off the wires all weird. Putting it back securely made it stop chirping, and it was still on, and hasn't gone off again. the smell has also started to dissipate upstairs since we had the windows open for a bit.

it was bizarre though. almost 2 dozen people assessed this shit and nobody could find a source. this family has lived here for 25+ years and never had this particular smell.

We did get to sit in the firetruck while they assessed things bc it was cold outside lol that was pretty cool.

But now I wanna go to bed and it's just so fucking cold in here I can't even get cozy fffff :(