It’s always mildly disconcerting to be about to lay down for bed and hear the sound of a large vehicle’s air-brakes bringing it to a halt outside your window, then you look through the blinds only to see a firetruck parked there.
Suddenly, the nice men in their turnout gear had my full attention. If my building was on fire, I’d kinda like to know about it.
They weren’t in a hurry, and they didn’t have their sirens a-blazing, but they were there. Flashlights in hand they explored the breezeway on my side of building 4, and then went to the other side where it looks as if they were met by a woman and her dog. They disappeared over there for about five minutes. They then leisurely walked back to the truck, got in and disembarked. The guy in the front passenger seat spotted me on my patio watching them, and gave me a half hearted wave.
I have absolutely no clue what the hell that was all about, but needless to say it was strange, and a little surreal. As I was walking back to the bedroom, I knew in my heart of hearts I had to pause to blog about this.
Fuck. I need to find a house to buy. I’m very tired of living with the possibility that the residents of 15 other apartments could possibly burn my home to the ground. I don’t like those odds, and frankly, I don’t trust that most of these chuckleheads could pour water out of a boot if the instructions were written on the heel, much less be completely focused on day-to-day common sense and safety. All it takes is one asshole to leave a candle burning somewhere, or decide it’s perfectly ok to smoke in bed so long as the windows are open.
If I burn a house of my own to the ground, I have nobody to blame but myself. I wouldn’t be rolling the dice with a mob of lowest common denominators.
*sigh*
*** ADDENDUM ***
During the next hour a number of Austin Energy (the local power company) trucks came and went through my parking lot.
Curious.
And then around 1AM I was woken from a dead sleep by the sound of chainsaws. They went on for a number of hours, continually waking me on and off. This morning there was a tree-service company disposing of lots of large branches.
I can only surmise that a tree was rubbing on a power line to the building and causing some trouble, specifically something that may have caused some sparks; hence the firetruck, power company and tree-service company.
I is tired.
That will certainly give one cause for a restless nights sleep. You know what is even worse? Being jolted from a very sound sleep with someone pounding on your chest; then as your consciousness seeps back into your muddy mind you hear the word “CLEAR!!” chime loudly in your ears. Man that will bring your eyes wide open. I’m just saying is all.
There don’t have to be sparks for the fire department to get a call.
And generally they leave everything off that they turn off — power, gas, etc. — and let the utility companies certify that things are cool and turn it back on themselves.