Friday before last I went to the store in the morning and saw a bunch of police cars arriving at the end of my block. Throughout the day there were more and more of them, and a big police bus. I was worried that there had been a terrible murder or something, so I looked at the Capitol Hill blog and found that my neighbor--the one with all the signs, who Rachael and I had long ago pegged as a suspicious character--had an
eBay business selling stolen computers and bicycles. Rachael and I were pleased to be proven right, of course, and I was relieved that it was not a more distressing crime.
Yesterday I had Rachael, Tommy, and Dakki over for tea. I was standing at the stove pouring water into the teapot when I noticed smoke wafting past my window. I wondered if my next-door neighbors were cooking out on their deck, and Tommy asked if my neighbors had a fireplace. We decided we'd better investigate, and went downstairs to discover smoke billowing from the front steps! Rachael called 911 while I gathered Marigold (who now goes by her new middle name, Sheena) and Tommy rousted Dakki. My downstairs neighbor had been playing video games with his headphones on and hadn't noticed the smell, but I banged on his door hard enough to get his attention and he came out and managed to rip the insulating tape off of the outdoor faucet so we could squirt water under the porch till the firemen got there.
I forgot to put shoes on in my excitement, and Rachael wouldn't let me go back to get them, but a kindly neighbor gave me some flip flops (it was really cold out). My neighbor on the other side was worried about Sheena's welfare and offered to take her in if the house ended up burning down. They were so nice! Fortunately, the firemen got it out quickly and the smoke smell is fading, so all is well. I'm so glad I was home when it happened, though--it got smokey (smoky?) so quickly, I bet poor Sheena would have died of smoke inhalation before the firemen got there if we hadn't been alert.
Friday before last I went to the store in the morning and saw a bunch of police cars arriving at the end of my block. Throughout the day there were more and more of them, and a big police bus. I was worried that there had been a terrible murder or something, so I looked at the Capitol Hill blog and found that my neighbor--the one with all the signs, who Rachael and I had long ago pegged as a suspicious character--had an eBay business selling stolen computers and bicycles. Rachael and I were pleased to be proven right, of course, and I was relieved that it was not a more distressing crime.
Yesterday I had Rachael, Tommy, and Dakki over for tea. I was standing at the stove pouring water into the teapot when I noticed smoke wafting past my window. I wondered if my next-door neighbors were cooking out on their deck, and Tommy asked if my neighbors had a fireplace. We decided we'd better investigate, and went downstairs to discover smoke billowing from the front steps! Rachael called 911 while I gathered Marigold (who now goes by her new middle name, Sheena) and Tommy rousted Dakki. My downstairs neighbor had been playing video games with his headphones on and hadn't noticed the smell, but I banged on his door hard enough to get his attention and he came out and managed to rip the insulating tape off of the outdoor faucet so we could squirt water under the porch till the firemen got there.
I forgot to put shoes on in my excitement, and Rachael wouldn't let me go back to get them, but a kindly neighbor gave me some flip flops (it was really cold out). My neighbor on the other side was worried about Sheena's welfare and offered to take her in if the house ended up burning down. They were so nice! Fortunately, the firemen got it out quickly and the smoke smell is fading, so all is well. I'm so glad I was home when it happened, though--it got smokey (smoky?) so quickly, I bet poor Sheena would have died of smoke inhalation before the firemen got there if we hadn't been alert.
