Where there is a Will there is a Way

I think we are seeing the evolution of a method here. I write my drunk version on Friday nights. I read that version on Tuesday morning. I don't like what I read. I 'correct' it and republish it.

Back to being 'the meat in the sandwich:' When I finally realized how they were gassing me I made a few improvements to the apartment. I sealed the area inside the wall around the electrical outlets with a foam which expands to fill gaps and cracks. This helped. I installed fans in the living room window which blew air out; then opened the bedroom window, allowing fresh air to enter the bedroom. This REALLY helped, especially at night when I was in bed trying to sleep. But the incoming air was too full of allergens and pollutants at times, so I installed filters in the bedroom window. The filters worked but slowed the airflow too much. I then installed fans in the bedroom window blowing air in. This combination of fans and filters turned out to be the best arrangement. I had 'defeated' the gassers! I thought.

I made these changes reluctantly, and only after several attempts to get somebody in 'authority' to investigate the situation. I called the police. I called the EPA. I called the 'Association' (local homeowners association). I called the management company (which manages maintenance of the grounds). None of those fine folks was willing to get involved. I had even gone to my HMO for help when the tissues in my throat became so swollen I could barely speak. No joy. (They stomped the floor above me just now as I wrote that.) So I was clearly on my own. Only I could save myself. I am certain that if I had done nothing they would have eventually gassed me to death. And it would have been 'legal!'

The arrangement is not perfect but it has significantly reduced their ability to gas me. I estimate that it reduced their ability by 90 percent. Nowadays they are reduced to polluting the air just outside my bedroom window at night. some of their gas gets drawn into the bedroom, but it soon exits down the hallway and eventually out the living room window. They are still able to gas me in the living room (as I watch tv) by forcing gas down through some rather large openings in the furnace/air conditioner closet. Sealing this area will be my next project. Meanwhile I avoid most of that gas by opening the patio door and moving from my favorite spot on the couch to the side nearest the door. This works most of the time. However sometimes the outside breeze is such that little air is drawn in through the patio door. In that case I turn the two fans in the living room window up to full power. That almost always works.

The drawback to all this outside air is most obvious in deep winter and high summer. On a cold winter night the temperature in my bedroon can get below 40 degrees F. I stay warm under several layers of stuff, one of which is a down-filled comforter. The incoming air totally defeats the air conditioner in summer, so we do without it most of the time.