There's an episode of "Friends" when Ross Geller (David Schwimmer) is talking to a pretty girl, gets nervous, and has to think of something to say. What comes out of his mouth is something to the effect of "So... you know that natural gas smell? That's not really the gas. Natural gas is odorless. The gas company puts that smell in the gas so you can smell it if it leaks."

This story will probably be about as exciting as that. Tonight I was outside playing with Katie. Melissa comes out and we talk a little, and after a few minutes we both notice a funny smell. Like rotten eggs. We decide we should call the gas company, just in case there's a gas leak in the neighborhood.

The Blount County Fire Department comes out shortly. I show them where the gas meter is and they check it with an electronic sniffer. They check the furnace and water heater. They check the LP gas BBQ grill. They check in the spot where Melissa and I were standing when we smelled the natural gas odor. Nothing.

Remember what Ross taught us all about natural gas? It's odorless. The gas company adds that smell.

The fireman told me something interesting, and the Atmos Energy person who came out later confirmed it. There's an 18 inch Duke Energy gas main going through Blount County. The gas in the main line is odorless. The odor is added at local Atmos natural gas pumping stations, and there's a pumping station at the far end of the next street. Sometimes the odor that's injected into the gas escapes. A few weeks ago four houses on that street reported natural gas odor. That's what we smelled earlier, and as the wind shifted we couldn't smell it anymore. Fascinating, huh?