Save Your Receipts

My mom use to always tell me to save my receipts, and rarely did I heed her advice. I'm a girl who hates clutter. And receipts are clutter, aren't they? Well, no. I learned my lesson today.

A month or so ago, my husband was getting something out of the closet in our garage that holds our water heater. He noticed some big cement pipe had blown off the top of it and was laying on the floor. Just today, we finally got around to having our heating and air guys out to check on it.

The first guy that looked at it sort of gasped and said, "Have you guys been having headaches or getting really tired?". Apparently, that pipe on the ground is what keeps the CO2 from killing us. I don't think we've felt the effects, I guess because the water heater is not in our house,but in our garage. But the power of suggestion is so strong, that soon after hearing his words, I became quite headache-y, very tired, and my eyes became itchy. He said he wasn't "the man" for this particular job, but he called in and requested "the men" that are.

When they arrived they went out into the garage. One of the men picked up the pipe on the ground and said, "This is an abestos pipe". HOLY SMOKES. I know that word abestos. And I know that isn't good. He told me those pipes (clearly) haven't been used in years. (and years) When I told him it was his company that installed it only a year or two ago, he called in to find out who did the work.

There records showed that someone at our address had a new water heater put in in 1998. I didn't even live here then. And my water heater has a label on it that says "1998".

I began to feel very Twilight Zone-y. I started to doubt if I had replaced the water heater. But I KNEW I did. But how was I going to prove it anyway? Me, the girl that thinks receipts are clutter...

The A/C men left my house to go "pick up a part". So I walked back to our file cabinet saying my prayers. "Please let that ONE effing receipt be there."

Apparently, God or Mom or both are on my side on this one. I found the receipt! I had my proof. I purchased a water heater from this company 2 years ago. I called the A/C company and they sounded quite surprised by the information I was giving them. Maybe they had a A/C man installing old water heaters and installing them badly. And maybe I just blew the whistle on him.

As I type this, I'm still waiting for the men to return. I'm still waiting for a call back. The problem hasn't been taken care of. My eyes are still itchy, I'm still headache-y, and drowsy. But I've got my receipt.