Smoke Signals
It was late when I heard the sirens last night--maybe I should say it was early. They stoped abruptly, seemingly far away. But trucks are noisy, even if sirens are mute, so I looked between my blinds and down to find 2 police cars, a fire truck, and a cordoned off area with yellow tape beneath 7 stories beneath my window. It's a strange access route, mostly to allow a dump truck to get through. There are woods behind this road that climb a steep, but short hill to another road, and more apartment buildings beyond that. Whenever I look out my window, I usually only see trees, unless I'm really looking for something. It was too dark for me to see what everyone was gathered for, despite the portable light stand the firemen had put up to illuminate their area.I was half expecting a body to have been found. This morning, there was nothing in the news, no notice of horror in the lobby of my building. I was slightly disappoint and slightly relieved as someone with a healthy dose of morbid curiousity and fearfulness like me could be. No one has ever had to tell me that dreadful things can happen in suburbia.
At the Metro, the entire building was filled with white, smoke that oozed from the tunnel going in our direction. No one was telling people to leave so LT and I went downstairs to get on a train. I think I had that charcoal smell in my nose for the rest of the morning. I never did figure out what that was about either as the fire crews didn't arrive until after we'd left the station. Of course, Metro never tells anyone anything about a disturbance, sick passanger or train malfunction. They usually just say there's a disturbance, sick passanger or train malfunction. In my mind there is a big difference between a train malfunction when the doors don't close properly or a train's brakes don't work. The one may be a 10 minute delay, the other much longer.
As I left this afternoon, the fire alarm was going off on our building. Of course, we can never hear it in our office, so our receptionist has to email us or put something on the intercom. I have no idea why that is. We used to be able to hear the fire alarm just fine. Apparently it was a false alarm, but yet again, I heard fire crews on the way and some people had evacuated, not from our office, anyway.
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So many smoke signals in one day, and with this stifling heat. What does it mean? Is the universe trying to tell me something? Perhaps that I shouldn't have people over for a bbq and grill out tomorrow???
I guess we'll have to wait and see.
At the Metro, the entire building was filled with white, smoke that oozed from the tunnel going in our direction. No one was telling people to leave so LT and I went downstairs to get on a train. I think I had that charcoal smell in my nose for the rest of the morning. I never did figure out what that was about either as the fire crews didn't arrive until after we'd left the station. Of course, Metro never tells anyone anything about a disturbance, sick passanger or train malfunction. They usually just say there's a disturbance, sick passanger or train malfunction. In my mind there is a big difference between a train malfunction when the doors don't close properly or a train's brakes don't work. The one may be a 10 minute delay, the other much longer.
As I left this afternoon, the fire alarm was going off on our building. Of course, we can never hear it in our office, so our receptionist has to email us or put something on the intercom. I have no idea why that is. We used to be able to hear the fire alarm just fine. Apparently it was a false alarm, but yet again, I heard fire crews on the way and some people had evacuated, not from our office, anyway.
So many smoke signals in one day, and with this stifling heat. What does it mean? Is the universe trying to tell me something? Perhaps that I shouldn't have people over for a bbq and grill out tomorrow???
I guess we'll have to wait and see.