Imagine my surprise........

I was on call last night for anesthesia and therefore stayed at the "Frat House."  The Frat House being the apartment that Dane, myself and Joe rent for the express purpose of having a place to stay when on call, since all 3 of us live too far away to take on-call from home.

The apartment can be empty for any number of days during a month when none of the three of us are on call.  To minimize the electric bill (the apartment has electric heat) we turn the thermostat down to 45 degrees when we leave in the morning.

With the influx of frigid temps to the area yesterday and projected into double digit below zero F. degrees last night, I expected the apartment to be on the coldish side when I arrived at 4 pm.  And indeed the thermometer inside read 52 degree.  I turned the thermostat up to 70 hoping that my bed would be warmer when bedtime rolled around.

I was washing a dirty bowl that I found in the sink and noticed that the window above the sink was open a good 6 to 8 inches.  If I recall correctly, none of the frat house denizens were on call over the holiday weekend so that the last time any of us were here in on call status would have been last Thursday.  We enjoyed some milder temps on New year's day but the rest of the 4 day weekend was pretty cold.  I hesitate to image what catastrophe might have ensued if no one had been on call last night.  "Frozen water pipes?"

I'm reminded of the situation a few months ago when I discovered that the oven had been left on at 350 degrees for in excess of three days.

I know who left the oven on and the same person was on call last Thursday. I'll mention the open window to him this morning at work and express my concern that with the apartment being unoccupied so frequently we must increase our efforts to make sure everything is copacetic before we leave.