Tell me if you think I'm paranoid

I got to thinking today, cuz that's what I do on a Sunday in Mokpo when I don't really have any lesson planning to do. I got to thinking about this gas bill of mine, cuz that's what you do when you're gas bill is the same price as a plane ticket to Thailand or even the Philippines. I got to thinking about all the strange things that have happened in this apartment starting way back before I even got here.

The previous tennant's name was Hayley. I know that cuz I'm still getting her bills. Everybody loved Hayley. She was by all accounts a happy, intelligent, likeable person. But she got really sick during her stay in this apartment. I don't know all of her symptoms but teachers here that knew her have told me she was losing a lot of weight, getting depressed, fatigued and just worn right out. I found a LOT of ibuprofen and acetaminofin in the apartment when I got here too so maybe headaches were one of her symptoms. And I have Hayley's old computer in my office at work. I used to be a security guard at a jail. Occasionally we would put people on 24-hour suicide watch if we found certain indicators of possible suicide. I read one of Hayley's poems on a slow day at work. If a similar poem were found in a prisoner's cell where I worked that person would be instantly put on watch.

I don't know what kind of gas bills Hayley was paying but I've been told that she was so thin, sick and chilly all the time that she probably left the heater on constantly and would have thought nothing of paying massive gas bills.

When I moved into this apartment, Feb. 26th, I had just returned from a 7-week vacation in the Philippines and was fighting the customary final week ague I seem to contract when I go ANYWHERE. It usually makes the plane trip home a pain in the ass. But then I started classes March 3rd, continued working and until somewhere in the middle of April I was having trouble breathing and feeling a bit run down like I had allergies or something. I've never had allergies before but was almost convinced I was developing them in my old age.

I complained about it to friends, because, as they might tell you, I rarely miss a chance to complain, and received advice from a few. David Morris suggested I put eucalyptus oil under my nose when I sleep at night to allow me to breathe better. He's Australian. I actually WAS using Vicks rub I had bought in the Phils. It has eucalyptus oil, camphor and menthol. I also had a menthol spray I found in Korea that worked pretty good. But now that spray is impossible to find. That happens a lot in Korea.

Another friend told me that there are a couple of steel mills nearby. Gwangyang Steel is the fourth largest producer in the world aparently. He thought that the air might be a bit harder to breathe because of the industry nearby. I was born in Hamilton, Canada's steel town. My Grandfather worked at Stelco for many years until retirement. It's the fifth largest steel producer in the world, but, (sign of the times in Canada), has recently been renamed U.S. Steel Canada. And my Dad once worked at Dofasco, another big steel company in Hamilton. So I've been a smoke-eater from birth. I doubt that would cause any breathing difficulties.

Still others were suggesting the annual Chinese sand in the air could have been the problem. I heard there was a day or two that schools in Northern South Korea were closed down because of high levels of that crud, but down here in Mokpo we went on about our work blissfully unaware. I did give some credence to that idea since China has recently become by a LANDSLIDE the most polluted country in the world and every bit of the sand we get in our eyes and teeth here is coated with whatever toxins they are pumping into the air in China these days.

I got to thinking today about when I started breathing better. It was somewhere in the beginning of April if I'm not mistaken. My boiler exploded, (and I am not exaggerating the case, it went BOOM!), in mid April I think. Then I remembered opening the windows in early April in the patio where my boiler is and opening windows in the other patio on the other side of the apartment just to get some air flow. I thought maybe it would improve the air quality and make breathing easier. It really DID improve air flow here and I think that probably did the job.

Then I got this ridiculous 437 dollar gas bill. For April. If the bill is really and truly based on accurate readings of the gas meter in my apartment then there is no question I must have had a gas leak. And in those winter months when Hayley was here, when the windows were undoubtedly closed, SHE probably had a gas leak too. That would have made her sick or certainly compounded any other sickness she may have had.

Two questions leap to mind: 1. Why was there no explosion? 2. Why couldn't Hayley or I smell the gas?

During one of many summer jobs I had while I was getting my university education I worked at a natural gas pipeline in Northern Ontario. There's a process they call "blowoff" on the pipeline where the natural gas valves are bled to ease pressure on the lines. I have smelled the rotten egg odour that natural gas is supposed to have. I would be able to identify that without any problem. But I learned from the technicians at the pipeline that processed natural gas is odourless. That rotten egg smell is a chemical additive, (sulfur based I think), to help identify leaks. I never smelled it in the apartment. Hayley probably didn't either.

While "thinking" today I looked up a few things online. I found that the concentration of natural gas in the air that would create an explosion danger would be 5-15%. Maybe the concentration was never that high. It is lighter than air so maybe it just rose too high to be ignited or smelled. But then it would be too high to cause any health trouble too.

Then I looked at the price of natural gas. It's supposed to be about 32 cents per cubic meter. I looked at my bill and found that I was charged for 546 cubic meters. That works out to "only" $175.

Are natural gas prices that much more in Korea? Almost triple the price in America? Am I being ripped off by the gas company? Is the Mokpo gas company skipping the costly odorant adding process and selling odourless natural gas to its customers at regular odorized gas prices? Is this illegal in Korea like it is in civilized countries? There are still countries that just burn natural gas when they find it while looking for oil. THIS is illegal too but it happens. There are many things in Korea that are technically illegal but just not enforced. Was my boiler explosion a water pressure explosion like I have assumed up till now or was it possibly a natural gas ignition? Am I being slowly gassed to death in my own apartment? Or am I just being paranoid?