At least you're not a copper wire!

It's nasty out there today! Very wet. Staying dry is on everyone's mind. Working in electrical at Lowe's I see a lot of wire. So this poem, by my favorite poet-Carl Sandburg, fit with the day today:

I am a copper wire slung in the air,
Slim against the sun I make not even a clear line of shadow.
Night and day I keep singing-humming and thrumming:
It is love and war and money; it is the fighting and the tears,
the work and want,
Death and laughter of men and women passing through me,
carrier of your speech,
In the rain and the wet dripping, in the dawn and the shine
drying,
A copper wire.

-Carl Sandburg, 1916-

A copper wire sits in the rain, all day night; it never quits working, well, almost. Even though it's nasty, wet today, God made it so the sun always shines again, to dry things out. Have a warm, sunny day on the inside! :)

Somebody's car is on fire!

Wow! Had a real scare a couple weeks ago. Not just a momentary scare, I mean a real scare for about 45 minutes. It was a fire. Yes, a real fire. But not just a fire in my apartment complex, or just near my apartment, but right outside my window! Yes, it was 10 feet from my sliding glass door. Too much for me at the moment.

I was sitting at my table checking my email when I heard my neighbor arrive home. No, not just his car drive up, but the stereo blasting, as well. It was so annoying. I could not even hear my own stereo any more. Instantly I knew who it was, or at least it was one of the two from upstairs. A minute later I was even thinking about it anymore.

"Bam, bam, bam, bam!" went the door, suddenly. I looked through the peep hole. "Hmm, that my be my upstairs neighbor," I thought. "Really big nose through here though." So I opened the door to be blasted with, "Somebody's car is on fire out here." Ok, so I was thinking it could be mine or anyone elses. Instantly I freaked out, looked out, and ran out. It wasn't mine. Whewww! But it was definately on fire, and a growing fire at that. He said someone had already called 911 and the fire department was on there way. Ok, so what's next? We all get out and stand and watch till it blows my apartment away. Yes, did I mention it was parked directly in front of my groud level apartment. Ten feet from my window. No, let's not stand and watch. How about getting a fire extinguisher. Wait, it has got to be chemically and electrically rated for those fires, also. Yeah, mine is!

I must have been the only one with one or the only one with guts enough to get close to it. So I ran inside, grabbed it, and began blasting away. How many people think about the leaking chemicals running under the car when on fire and how they spread when blasted with air? Not many I bet. Well, there they went chemicals spreading due to the blast covering the engine and wheel welds. It didn't seem to do much. Now I se more flames coming out the other side of the hood. So it helped this side temporarily, but not the other. Great! At this point the car is going up big time and I'm about five feet from it. Never occured to me to open the hood, but that my be because I did not have the protective equipment for a flashover coming out at me when the oxygen rushed in. Good thing or God thing? I started to realize this whole thing may blow up in my face any second. once it reaches the gas... you know, especially if there is a leak of any sort. About this time, people were telling me to back up. I was thinging, "Really!" But my legs were not moving yet. Ok, so now I am moving back, about a hundred feet.

We could not do anything. Just stand and watch the car burn. Then we heard loud pops. Not gun fire, but the pieces of the engine blowing under the extreme heat. Oh yeah, and the front tires. One neighbor finally came out and said she thought the pops were gun shots at first, but then she looked out her window and saw all of us (about 10-15 neighbors) scattered out there watching. At this time it occured to me that I did not recall closing my apartment door. Nor did I grab my keys, wallet, a jacket, or put on shoes other slippers. Hmm, was my adreinaline flowing?

The fire department finally got there. Still no explosion. Thank God! My apartment and probably the two above it would have been blown up pretty good if it had. At least everyone was safe, too. Ok, I have to add in that two crazy, but smart, neighbors had gone and moved their cars away before. One had actually gone back in grabbed here little girl and then gotten in her car to move it, with the girl. A little gutsy after I had already backed up and it could have exploded. So, now the firemen are hosing the car down and trying to pry the hood open. It wouldn't budge. Ten minutes later they get the idea to try to pop it from inside. Yeah, that driver's side windwo wasn't need anymore anyway. It was smashed! Still couldn't get it open. So they pull out the saw. Made a nice little "V" in the hood, but it worked. So now, twenty minutes later, they are hosing the engine down.

The whole time, the guy who banged on my door was on the phone with his friend who lives upstairs and owns the bright yellow BMW junk next to his car. I thought it was his car. Yep, he owned it. Serves him right for playing his radion that loud. Just kidding! I felt bad for him. His friends car, the BMW that has been parked there for months, has also been burned some and the tired partially melted. So how was my car on the other side? I was hoping fine. It was. It was just covered in ash; not black anymore, gray.

I overheard a policeman say he thought it started around the battery. A guy at work said it was probably due to his stereo not being fused and therefore the power went back to the battery and overheated it... something like that. Makes sense. It was a mess, his car i mean, and the one next to it. But it was over and everyone was ok.

His car stayed there till yesterday. Not a pretty sight. But it's fianlly gone. Wow, it was exciting, but not in a good way. Hope you enjoyed this story and remember, Smokiy the Bear says, "Don't play wiht matches." No, I really did not set his car on fire! Seriously, I was in my apartment.