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July 21, 2004
LUCKY
I had a bunch of stuff I was going to write about tonight... and maybe I still will, depending on whether I can sleep. Writing usually is therapy for me anyway. But for now I won't be covering any new topics...
I got home from work tonight (stayed late arguing in the comment field with our friend Alan [g]) to find that there had been an explosion and fire in my complex this afternoon... apparently someone had been redoing their condo, was using polyurethane, there was a spark... and BOOM.
There are three wings to the building I live in; two of them remained relatively undamaged, while one obviously sustained some serious damage.Thankfully, I live in one of the relatively unaffected wings. We can't go into the other wing; I'm told that the residents of that wing haven't yet been allowed back in. I hear from neighbors who were home this afternoon that one unit has been completely destroyed, another is considered beyond repair, there are several others with varying degrees of serious damage, and there are structural concerns yet with the second and third floors in that wing.
Obviously, I'm concerned about the welfare of my neighbors; I can only imagine what it must feel like to not be able to go into your home and survey the damage. I can imagine it, though... when you come up to your complex and see that there's obviously been a fire, all sorts of things go through your head, and for a few minutes there they went through mine.
I don't have a whole lot; I've been a nomad for most of my life, have yet to settle in anyplace for very long, and accordingly haven't accumulated much of value. The furniture and TV and everything are insured, of course... so they could be replaced. I have some irreplaceable stuff: some baseball memorabilia (autographed balls and bats), photo albums, old class rings... stuff like that, where getting money for them wouldn't recover them, you know? Butthat didn't seem to matter when I first saw what had happened... all I could think about was how much it would suck to have to replace everything, and whether my cat was safe. (Yeah, I know... a guy with a cat. Shut up - my cat rocks.)
Thankfully, there doesn't seem to be too much damage in my place - mostly everything just smells of smoke. So the cat and I dodged a bullet. And everything else I was going to write about seems a whole lot less important right now. I hope you'll excuse my skipping out tonight - but I'll be back tomorrow night.
