Turn off the Stove.

This morning I ran out of the house, down the stairs as usual, out onto the street, where the air was cool and I was sweaty, and into the subway.  As soon as I hit the platform, I thought to myself, and said aloud to my wife, that I wasn't sure if I had turned the stove off.  I cook that steel cut oatmeal every morning, with lots of frozen fruit, and it takes about 20-30 minutes of very low heat.  Often times, I'll pour it out, and throw the pot in the sink without checking the stove top.  One day I left it on all day long, though luckily, the window was open, and the flame went out, so all we lost was a bit of gas.  Not a good thing, no.  But much better than the alternative.  Mind you that about a year and a half ago, I had to leave my then Brooklyn based-lodging because of a fire (that my then room-mate started because of smoking). 

So I'm quite sensitive to the possibility of fire, to the capacity, that is, of fire, to change things.  Now, every day before we leave, I at least visually inspect the stove to make sure all of the knobs are vertical.  More often than not, I walk over to the thing, and turn them to make sure they are notched into the appropriately "off" position.  Today, I didn't do it.  I didn't take the extra step.  Simultaneously, our bathtub decided to become clogged, and, despite the skin I rubbed off on my palm with the plunger, I could not unclog it with the plunger, so the super is coming to the apartment today to assist.  The question was: 1) would he come early, and 2) would he notice the stove-top was still on?

I decided it wasn't certain enough that he would, so turned around walked back upstairs, saw the same parked cars, the same firehouse, the front door to the building, the elevator, and finally, the oven, which was turned off.  Then I turned around and went back to the subway, and swiped the card just as a train was coming--no dice.  The card was "just used."  I waited and bought a new card.  Then, instead of using it, I used my monthly pass to check, and viola, it worked.  Now I've got a backup card.  Yay.  And I'm stressed out from the train ride, where waves of exhaustion reeled over me from the morning adrenaline rush.  So it goes on a Monday Morning.