fire

I just got back inside from standing in front of my building with all of my neighbors. It was funny how there was sort of a block party feel to the very informal gathering. I rarely see anyone save for chance encounters in the garage waiting for a vehicle to be delivered by the cage carousel that is our high-tech Klaus parking structure. What a nightmare this thing is! If you're lucky and your car is right where it's supposed to be, you might be inside it and ready to drive off no sooner than 45 seconds later. If someone down the row has retrieved there's more recently and you need to wait for the shifting and raising process, you're looking at more than 3 minutes. The worst is when you arrive at nearly the same time as someone else because first you could wait the 3 minutes for their car, and then the 3 minutes for things to shift around again for your car.

So here we are out in the night air and it occurs to me that this might be the highest occupancy of pets in a building that I have seen! Is it now en vogue to have a pet in your urban condo? What is this? Surely the smells must permeate all through their units, as they did in the elevator ride back up once we got the all clear from Fire Marshall Bill. False alarm as usual. I almost didn't make it out of the building anyway. First of all, I was nodding off on my couch and was scantily clad because it's always hot up here in the summertime, and I hadn't left the house all day. My routine had been, ice my knee, play with my computer, ice my knee, think about making my way over to the kitchen for some food, ice my knee, stare at the world outside my window longingly, do my physical therapy exercises, ice my knee...you get the picture. When the alarm went off and I realized that it was actually the building wide one and not just the single alarm in my unit, I had to find some clothes. Well, first I had to find my crutches. Next I found some clothes. My shirts are way over there in the closet and I don't feel like expending the energy to get all the way over there so I opted to just zip up my sweat jacket all the way. Shoes were a problem because I can't bend my leg long enough to put the left one on. I finally decided on flip flops. And since it was chilly outside and I didn't know how long we'd be, I was sure to look for a beanie or hat of some sort to keep me warm. All of this took at least 8-10 minutes of me trying to amble around quite ineffectively before finally locking my door and crutching it toward the elevator. I know, you're not supposed to take the elevator in an emergency, but after a millisecond of thought, I decided that 6 flights of stairs were not happening on crutches tonight. No way. No McCain.

I didn't even care that I probably looked like a total idiot coming out of the elevator in the front lobby for everyone to see. I would be a spectacle anyway, hunched over on these two metal rods, looking tired and sad and worn out. It was just another reminder of how vulnerable I am right now to some special circumstances. Oh well. I can think the good Lord for allowing me to move at all and delivering from danger, even if there was none present this time. We were just practicing. When it was all said and done, I was quite relieved that I hadn't picked up the wrong keys and made it a point to come in and be thankful.