Fire.
We were woken very abruptly in the dark hours before dawn this morning by the sounds of loud banging and breaking glass. Russell's first impression was of gunfire outside, mine more of the Hottentots-running-amok variety. A few crashes, shatters, and heart attacks later, the muffled cacaphony resolved itself into a pounding at the door and male voices yelling "Fire department!"
The upstairs neighbor's catsitter had opened his eyes to an apartment full of smoke and had dialed 911. The firemen, being unable to locate anything actually burning in that unit, proceeded to attempt to kick in our back door, then broke the window in it. (They hadn't realized that our apartment was even there until I opened the other door.) A quick survey of the scene revealed nothing amiss in our area, so they kicked in the (vacationing) ground floor tenant's door instead. Nothing.
I stood outside in hastily assembled clothes and watched the firefighters mill about in large and manly fashion. I kept thinking of euterpe35 and wishing I could stack a few of them under her Christmas tree. Eventually they traced the cause to a brief fire in one of the furnaces that the landlord had been working on. Everything was under control shortly afterwards, and the nice, yellowclad and very-attractive-not-that-I-was-looking men went on their merry way to save someone else's Christmas.
So thanks, SFD. You scared the holy beejeezus out of me, but at least I don't have to worry about the furnace exploding while I sleep, which is where I'm headed right now.
The upstairs neighbor's catsitter had opened his eyes to an apartment full of smoke and had dialed 911. The firemen, being unable to locate anything actually burning in that unit, proceeded to attempt to kick in our back door, then broke the window in it. (They hadn't realized that our apartment was even there until I opened the other door.) A quick survey of the scene revealed nothing amiss in our area, so they kicked in the (vacationing) ground floor tenant's door instead. Nothing.
I stood outside in hastily assembled clothes and watched the firefighters mill about in large and manly fashion. I kept thinking of euterpe35 and wishing I could stack a few of them under her Christmas tree. Eventually they traced the cause to a brief fire in one of the furnaces that the landlord had been working on. Everything was under control shortly afterwards, and the nice, yellowclad and very-attractive-not-that-I-was-looking men went on their merry way to save someone else's Christmas.
So thanks, SFD. You scared the holy beejeezus out of me, but at least I don't have to worry about the furnace exploding while I sleep, which is where I'm headed right now.