Thursday, November 22, 2012

Thanksgiving


Tuesday night, I came home to see fire apparatus at the end of the street, 
with more coming until they were lined up along the narrow lanes. 
Again? Again. For what seemed like the third time in three weeks,
families had been burned out of their homes. If it seems like an
epidemic, it is - an epidemic of stupidity - because all
three fires were due to negligence. It isn't just the homes where
the fires originated, but the adjacent townhomes
were also damaged, which means about a dozen folks
have been forced to start over, from scratch,
because someone was careless with a cigarette or left a frying pan 
on the stove while they went to the store. Damn.

I've always said that my biggest fear about apartment living 
was not knowing what my neighbors were up to. While I can control 
 my own actions, I have to trust that my neighbors are not
going to fall asleep while smoking, or splash hot grease
onto the stove top. The prospect scares me to friggin' death;
all the smoke detectors and extinguishers in the world are no defense
against stupidity and negligence. We are just lucky that,
so far, no one has been injured or killed.

My little place is warm, my neighbors are quiet, and
the stove tops are OFF. Tomorrow, I will
have a Thanksgiving dinner of broiled salmon, rice pilaf,
asparagus, cranberry sauce, and chocolate ice cream.
I have a meal of my choosing and "hovel, sweet hovel"
has not been among those burned.
Yes, I am thankful. Amen.

3 comments:

dive said...

Yikes! That's scary, Speedway. I hope your neighbours are as sensible as you are.
Happy Thanksgiving! Your dinner sounds yummy.
I love the Japanese look of your photo. Almost monochrome with bright splashes of red. Lovely.

Anonymous said...

Happy Thanksgiving, Speedway. Those and the ones safely contained in my fireplace are the only flames I hope to see this holiday.

Speedway said...

Thank you, Dive. I did enjoy the simplicity of those red leaves hanging on the black twigs. They made me think of hearts.

Yikes! is right, although I don't think I'm more sensible, just fortunate enough to not ever have smoked and, except for the occasional egg, I stopped frying food long ago.

Hello, f1f36. How are you doing? Glad to know that your fire will remained confined to its fireplace.

These misfortunes are on a small scale comapred to the 33 families whose homes have been condemned due to the explosion a couple weeks ago. And, on a much larger scale, those who've been displaced because of Sandy.

We are blessed.