Christmas Fire Deja Vu

 

Today I had to have some bloodwork done, so I fasted for twelve hours, but the phlebotomist didn't ask me if I'd been fasting. I told her I had been, and she said, "That doesn't matter for this test," and then her colleague added, "You would have had to fast for thirty days to affect it!" So afterwards Travalon and I went to Crema Cafe for the first time in ages, and then we went to the Olbrich Gardens Holiday Trains, which are model trains. This year's theme was something like "Sugar Time." Both Travalon and I took photos.

We made some videos too, so watch for those to get posted sometime. I may include them in the video of the big Holiday Train. We also went into the Conservatory and both took photos.

Travalon watched the Crystal Palace game, but it didn't go well. Jerry and Roy gave each other a comforting hug.

Every time I turned around today, Travalon was watching a different sport: after soccer, then college football, then high school football, then college basketball. I went for a walk outside, despite the frigid temperatures, and I did some DuoLingo.

(This is the online nickname of a buddy of mine from the Shamrock Club.) Travalon responded with, "Wee Irish Bear."

Travalon responded with Wendy asking if, since it's Christmas, I could possibly transfer some of those points to their standing in the Premier League? (The Wolves are in relegation danger.)

A train usually goes by anytime between 5:00 and 5:35 in the evening, so I suggested we drive over to the intersection where the train crossing is, since Travalon wanted to see it going at night with the flashing lights. (As my regular readers may remember, this is how I hurt my knee back in early October.) As we were getting ready to leave, we heard a weird buzzing sound, like someone was buzzing a neighbor to let them in, but it just kept going on and on. Travalon thought it was the dryer, since we were doing laundry, but I said, "I think it's out in the hall." He opened the door and said, "I smell smoke!" so I grabbed Niko and Mandy, put on my coat, and ran out the door. Travalon and at least one other person called 911. Here is the truck:

Then a second one arrived! No way could we get past them to see the train, and with all that commotion, we never heard if it went by. Our neighbor who isn't directly below us told us that our neighbor directly below us had started a fire in her fireplace, but she had not opened the flue, so all the smoke came into her apartment. This is a different neighbor than the previous one who lived in that apartment and almost burned down the whole building on Christmas Day some years ago by starting a fire in the fireplace while there were decorations hanging on it that caught fire. In this case there was no fire, just lots of smoke, and I was afraid the firefighters would make us open all our windows like they had while we weren't home that other time, but that night it was 50 F out and today it was maybe 10 F. I was terrified of all my plants dying, but one fireman came into our apartment and said, "It's not too bad in here! Just keep your door closed." We did open a couple of windows not near the plants for a few minutes, but boy am I getting tired of these neighbors who don't know how to use fireplaces safely. 

Once the firetrucks left, we went to the Christmas House on Colony Drive. Travalon took some photos.

Then we went to our favorite Indian restaurant, the one we usually go to on Christmas Eve, for dinner. There was a house decorated for Christmas right across the street.

As we were about to cross the parking lot to our car, another car pulled in front of us and just stopped. We waited for it to move, but it just sat there, so we had to walk around it to our car, which it was blocking. Then a bunch of Millennials piled out and gave us a half-hearted apology for being so rude. Maybe they really are the worst generation, like people say.

When we got home, we watched "Techno Chicken" and two videos by the lederhosen-wearing Japanese yodeler who sings about chickens. If you have never seen "Chicken Attack," you really do owe it to yourself to watch this video. Then we exchanged Christmas presents; I gave him a book about George Harrison and another about Larry Bird (and I still need to make him the third thing, a coupon book with one dozen coupons for a night out without me), and he gave me a book about the amazing night sky, a Niko shirt, and a stuffed roseate spoonbill.

While I am feeling a lot better, I am coughing a lot. Is that because of my cold, or is it from the lingering smoke in our apartment? And will we ever have a downstairs neighbor who doesn't almost burn the place down around Christmas?

Famous Hat