Notes from a Rookie Firefighter...March 17, 2009

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!!

This is a day in the life of Denise Broesler, and an interesting story about automatic oil deliveries.

I am using a large well-known oil company and they wanted to deliver oil today. Since I had oil delivered last month, I asked them to stick the tank before they delivered the oil. So the guy comes and says the tank is empty, and can't understand how I could have gone through so much oil.

He checked my sump pumps for any trace of oil and one was almost filled and had a rainbow film at the top. He told me to call a plumber, so I put a call into my home warranty company to come fix or replace the sump pump. He also thought I had a leak in the oil tank. I had tank insurance but didn't know to switch it to the new company. I thought when you renewed the policy you just tell them you have a new oil company.

The insurance people let me renew the insurance over the phone. I started to freak out because the insurance company said I would have to remove the tank to check. If there's a leak they pay. If not, I just removed and replaced an oil tank for nothing. I couldn't even remove it and switch to gas, because the insurance company said you need to keep oil for the policy to stay in effect. I couldn't believe it!!!

The guy decided to stick the tank for a third time, and this time he said "Me bad." I didn't think that sounded very positive. He hadn't gone down far enough. I actually had 200 gallons of oil in the tank.

I made the guy go back and check the sump pump. Thankfully, I thought to switch the plug to another outlet, and the sump pump started working. I took a water sample to the firehouse and they said it was NOT oil.

It seems I always get what I'm looking for at the firehouse, and I'm not even Irish.