That Smell Can Save Your Life

Gas leak or smelly flowers?

Dead grass.  Flies.  Air bubbles in the street when it’s raining.  The smell of decay.

All of the above can be indicators of a natural gas leak.

Yesterday when I walked home from dropping off Kid 1 at school I noticed a foul smell in the air.  The morning was overcast and moist, so it didn’t surprise me that there was a weird smell – that happens when air gets trapped by clouds.  But by the time I got to my house, I realized that the smell lingered over the whole block.  It smelled like the odorant in natural gas to me, and since I had recently heard a PSA by The Gas Company urging people to call them if they smell gas, I called them.

A few hours later, a technician came out to my house and asked me some questions, then walked through the neighborhood to investigate.  Unfortunately, by the time he arrived, the smell in the neighborhood had gone away, along with the clouds.  Fortunately, there were no other signs of a gas leak, but the tech offered to show me what that could have looked like.  So on this sunny morning, I walked up and down the block with Tony from The Gas Company, learning about the signs of major gas leaks.

First, what’s not a gas leak:

“That smell” can come from decaying matter in the sewage line, which can waft up to your nose through the gutter or manhole covers.  If the smell is overwhelming and The Gas Company is called and they track the source to the sewer, they in turn call the city which will flush the decaying matter down the line.  Flowering onion plants can also smell like natural gas, because the oils in onions have the same chemical that is used in the odorant.  One of my neighbors had two long rows of the plant growing in the front yard.

Every so often, construction sites or the Oak Park substation will flush moisture out of major gas pipes, and that can send the odor down into your neighborhood, especially on cloudy or humid days.  Tony told me that when that happens, The Gas Company gets a lot of calls.  At that point, they know what is causing the odor, and there’s no reason to be alarmed.

What could be a gas leak:

Tony pointed out the things he looks for when a natural gas odor is reported at someone’s home and a street-level pipe leak is suspected:

-Dead grass and vegetation where it should be thriving, especially near where the pipeline from the house to the street is located:  if there is a gas leak, the gas suffocates the grass and other plants, just as if the soil was flooded.

-Flies collecting around a certain area, where there is nothing visible for them to be feasting on.  Tony said they like the smell of natural gas, and tend to be attracted to leak areas.

-Bubbles:  when it rains or when you spray water on a crack in the street and you see bubbles, that is a pretty good sign of a gas or water leak.

Before he left Tony told me that if you suspect a real emergency first call the fire department.  They can send someone out faster than The Gas Company.  You should know where your gas shut-off valve is (attached to the meter on the side of your house) and how to shut it off (with a wrench).

I might have felt silly for bringing Tony out to the neighborhood for a false alarm, but I am grateful that it was a false alarm.  About a year ago, a natural gas pipeline exploded in a residential neighborhood in San Bruno, CA.  Eight people burned to death and many others were injured.  Blocks of homes were destroyed.  It was a horrible disaster.  Investigators say the explosion was caused in part by poor management and aging pipelines.  But maybe if someone had smelled something, and called it in…

Reyes Adobe Days Are Coming

If you’ve ever been in or near Agoura Hills, you will have seen the words “Reyes Adobe.”  It’s an exit off the 101 Freeway, a north-south artery through town, a once-cursed bridge, a park, and a museum.  Reyes Adobe is a cornerstone of heritage in the city, and because it is such an entrenched part of an Agoura family’s everyday life, it is something that can easily be ignored.

Ever been a tourist in your own town?  I have been a tourist in the greater Los Angeles area since 1995, when I moved to Pasadena from a town near New Haven, CT.  When I first arrived, the spirit of exploration moved me to drive from one corner of the sprawling metropolis to the other, discovering places new to me at every turn.

That was a pretty long time ago.  Now as a mother of two small boys who is usually too tired and disdainful of LA traffic to go anywhere, I faithfully consult the Acorn’s activity calendar every week to imagine myself attending local events with my children.  Imagine is the key word here, because we are usually too busy with something else—or too lazy—to even attend the local functions.  But every so often we do venture out and the results are usually wonderful, like when we went to the Day of the Horse.

Every October, the Agoura Hills Recreation Department holds its annual Reyes Adobe Days, which is the town’s biggest community fair and cultural festival of the year. Traffic is closed all around Reyes Adobe Park, which is conveniently located just off Reyes Adobe Blvd. The park comes alive with vendors and docents and rides and food and games and activities. There is a “Night at the Adobe” planned with sophisticated food and entertainment planned for adults—a welcome respite from the usual bouncy-house and kettle corn family fun. There is a parade.

Oh how I love me a small town parade!

Alas, this is the second year in a row that I will not be around to experience Reyes Adobe Days. September 30th is my 40th birthday, and we’ll be out of town celebrating. I’m used to missing out on otherwise super cool things in order to properly celebrate my birthday—this year alone we are missing Reyes Adobe Days, YMCA flag football sign-ups, a VIP evening at Disneyland for Mickey’s Halloween Party, a VIP breakfast and day at Knott’s Scary Farm, and more.

I can’t remember where I was last year, but I remember dropping Agoura Hills Dad and the kids off at the top of Reyes Adobe Drive to deposit them in the parade. They did attend the festival, but they are all boys. The best report that I got was “it was fun.”

It’s a great way to learn more about the community around you and have a good time doing it.  You can actually visit the adobe museum any time of the year, and in my next post I will show you pictures from when I took the kids there this summer, on a day that was easily 100 degrees.

Agoura Hills Mom Recommends: Drop-In Hair Color

UPDATE: TINT is now closed.

Drive by hair color can fit into your schedule way better than a cut-color-blowout.

You know how they have all these new “blow-dry” bars like Blo and DryBar?  Where you can just walk in and get a blowout and nothing else and it’s cheaper and faster?  Well, now there is such a thing as a color bar.  I went to TINT in Santa Monica back in April to experience the magic, and I must say, if you happen to be in Santa Monica for a birthday party or some other kid adventure, I would recommend dropping the kids off, getting your hair colored, and then returning for pickup.

inside the front of TINT

Created by Frank Dino and Dana Clark, both legendary stylists on the west side, TINT is a place where you can simply drop in, all the way up to closing time, and get your hair colored – completely or just a touch up.  You pay a la carte prices for the service, and then when the color is finished and inspected by an expert, you go to the vanity station and dry it and style it yourself.

woman at vanity station

Expert colorist Frank Dino himself took care of me.  He inspected my current hair color, which was this faded blah blah:

before TINT

Dino working with another client, who told me she’d follow him anywhere

Dino advised me to go more natural, meaning a warmer brown.  I said what the heck, you’re the expert.  Also, he gave me wine.  I was gonna do whatever he said.  Working with my answers to the questionnaire I filled out when I arrived, and what I told him about wanting to cover my gray hair and the way I normally style it and how often I get it done, Dino chose and mixed the color to get it just right.  Then an assistant came and applied it to my hair.

beauty is pain

I sat for a while, drinking wine and tweeting.  Then a different assistant washed it out.  And finally, Dino checked the color and did the blowout himself.  I felt like a VIP.

after TINT

after TINT, different camera

I was impressed with the sleek design of the studio, the friendliness of the staff, the locker facilities provided so you don’t have to lug your purse, etc., around the studio or worry that it will get lifted, the location right next door to a fancy yoga studio, and the expert advice of Dino poking around in my hair and making me feel special.  Right around closing time a prospective customer popped in.  Dino didn’t turn her away, but sat with her and discussed her needs instead.  On their website, TINT says they take clients right up to closing time, so you can literally walk in the door at 7pm and get your hair colored.

The services I received at TINT cost $47 for the base application (on my roots) $15 for the rest of the hair which is called toner, and then $35 for the blowout.  I was there for a few hours, but only because I was taking pictures and asking a ton of questions.  In my real life, I would have popped in, said “do what you did last time,” and run out of there with wet hair to hightail it back to Agoura Hills.  Let’s be honest, I hate going south of Zuma and east of Calabasas.  I’m not making a special trip to TINT.  But I do have to go to Santa Monica every now and then, and next time I’m hoping to time it to when the grays start to show.

I received complimentary services during my visit to TINT to facilitate this feature.