Whoa - we owe how much?

We have any bills that we can set up through our bank so that before we get our electricity bill, gas bill or credit card bills in the mail we typically get an email from our bank letting us know the amount of the bill. A couple days ago we got an email letting us know the amount of our electricity bill (hate paying for central air, but sure do love it).

Then yesterday we got an email telling us the amount of our gas bill. Imagine my shock to see that our gas bill was $112. Considering that the only things that use gas in our house are the hot water heater and our central heating unit, this was some cause for alarm. For the last 2 months, our gas bill has been $20 a month and now it is suddenly over 5 times that amount. I called Justin (in Houma) to see what he thought about it.

We remembered that on Saturday, we thought there was a strange smell in the garage (where the hot water heater is located) but on Sunday we didn't notice it so much anymore. But of course now I am freaking out a little bit that we have a gas leak. What would you think - strange smell and then your gas bill is out of control?

I called the gas company and told them my concern and they said that since we smelled something the other day they would send a technician out that day (yesterday) in order to check to see if there was a leak or if there was some other problem.

About 30 minutes later the doorbell rings and the guy is here to make sure we don't have a gas leak. Luckily there was no leak and the high bill was due to a "mis-read of our meter".

The thing is - the guy acted so annoyed with me that he had to check to find out that there was no leak. Especially since we had not "officially" received a bill in the mail. I'm sorry - isn't that your job? It isn't like I called and said, "we have a gas leak, send someone right away". I explained the situation to the lady and she said "that is cause for concern, we will send someone today".

And would he have preferred that I waited a few days to have a paper copy of the bill in my hands so that if there was a gas leak, we might no longer have a house?

Can you tell that it irked me?