This is our first winter on the west coast and I did not expect it to be so cold.
I thought the west coast was warm and sunny year round.
This house had a wonderful gas furnace though and it keeps us nice and warm. Or, at least, it did until the earthquake hit. This was also our first earthquake and it was rather frightening. We ran outside. Afterwards, our neighbors told us we should never run outside and it is better to shelter under a table or in a doorway. Later that day we discovered that our hot water was not hot, our gas furnace didn’t work, and the stove was busted too. We assumed that the gas had been shut off for the whole city because of the earthquake. We were really suffering without a furnace or hot water but could make do without the stove for a few days. My husband and I went out and got a few little space heaters to make the house comfortable but we would always turn them off if no one was home because we worried what would happen if there was another earthquake and items fell on the heater. After a few days of this, we discovered, from our neighbors, that each house has its own gas shut off after an earthquake and that they turned theirs back on themselves. They then showed us how. It was really simple and we felt kind of silly for going without heat and other amenities so long when we could have just simply turned the gas back on