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10:11 p.m. - 2003-08-23
Fire
Walked to the grocery store with my youngest today. Three city blocks. Decided that I needed to be more aggressive with the muscles I pulled/tore. It's been a week now and I'm losing serious muscle tone - especially in the abs where I struggle most anyway. As we neared the store, a youngish woman nearly drove across our toes in her rush to get the handicapped spot by the door. Was she handicapped? No sticker on her car, but give people the benefit of the doubt right? My son and I grabbed a cart and started our shopping. My son was standing in line at the deli. Who should walk in and shove in front of him, but the "handicapped" woman. She was quite quick on her feet and showed no disability whatsoever. Ignorance doesn't count.

Met one of the moms I volunteered with for many years. Her family moved one community east a few years ago. Her hubby is a fireman working in the investigation unit. She asked me if I'd heard the cause of the explosion early this morning. "Ummmm,what explosion?" The one three doors down from their home I guess.

Now I did hear a lot of sirens this morning and I did get up as a result - about 6 am. But the fire station is one community south of me, so we hear that all the time. Unless I hear the trucks getting closer, I don't worry about them - well I do, but it's more of an "oh dear I hope it's not too bad" reaction. I also had heard a series of percussive sounds, but we've lived near the airport for 24 years now and that isn't all that unusual either. If the sounds take on a certain pitch, or if something out of the usual is heard then I stop and pay attention, although I don't know what I'd do if an airplane was going to crash anyway. So, yes, I guess I did pay attention by getting out of bed, but one doesn't usually think of three house going up in a ball of fire as something to look for. The good news is that all 11 residents were unhurt and damage was contained to just those three homes. The source of the explosion? An unattended barbeque - must have had one heck of a propane supply.

While I was up at 6, I pulled the newspaper out of the mailbox and read a bit. One of the forest fires has taken over one of the cities in British Columbia. 30,000 people already evacuated with the balance on one hour's notice to leave; 300 homes destroyed. The army has been deployed there and every other jurisdiction in Canada with personnel to spare has sent resources - people and supplies. One of the oilwell fire fighting outfits is there too - the ones who put out the blazes in the Kuwait oil fields. Even so, Mother Nature is still way ahead; extreme winds are the problem.

Anyway I guess a gibbled hip isn't much to fuss about is it? There are a lot of people dealing with worse situations that may never be fixable; my little inconvenience will get better eventually.

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