And The Train Will Always Beat You Harder

“The house always wins” is a pretty basic concept.

It also applies to trains.

Though I Am A Bit Concerned That *I* Was The Only One Who Woke Up

Last night around 2:30 A.M. I awoke to the dulcet sounds of at least one smoke detector going off.  Even as groggy as I was, the smell in the air was thick enough that I paused to place my hand on the door to determine if it was hot before opening it, then . . . nothing.  The door was cool, the alarm(s) silenced themselves, and I was the only one awake in the house.  If not for the rapidly dissipating scent lingering in the air, I might have wondered what had just happened.

The scent was scorched dust though.

Last night there had been what passes for a “cold snap” around here, and I’d turned the heater on before going to bed.  Evidently, around 2:30 is when the (rarely ever used) heater kicked in, and I imagine you can figure out the rest yourself.

Nice to know everything works around here, at least.

An Internal Monologue

Right!  I meant to place the order for that cleaner that was recommended to L’s Mother.  Let’s see here . . .

Ground shipping only.  Huh.  That’s not a problem, but it seems odd for them to specify like that.  Oh, it’s because the chemicals are toxic.

Oh. 

Well . . . you could say pretty much the same thing about bleach, right?  You just have to be careful.  

Wow.  Look at the all the cities in Alaska that you can’t ship this stuff to. 

Well . . .  I don’t live in Alaska, nor do I live in any of the countries you can’t ship this stuff to either.

Maybe I should consider moving, but in meantime I think I’ll be looking at alternative cleaning methods . . .

Seat Belts Really DO Save Lives

Years ago I mentioned in passing my friend who felt that seat belt laws were “Communism.”  With equal provocation, over the weekend I found myself thinking of another friend from the same time period who was a firm, almost fanatical, believer in seat belts.  One day I asked him why.

“I flipped my truck once, rolled her three or four times before she came to a stop,” was his laconic reply.  “A seat belt saved my life.”

“I can see that,” I said with a nod.

“Not yet you don’t,” he chuckled.  “Yeah, my seat belt kept me from bein’ hurt, but it didn’t necessarily save my life.  The seat belt that kept my 300 pound buddy in his seat instead of squishin’ me like a grape, that saved my life!”

So wear your seat belts, kids . . . and make sure your friends do as well.

The life you save may be your own.

Yeah . . .

I was once told (with an unknown degree of seriousness) that an easy way to double or even triple your life expectancy was to never climb up a ladder onto the roof of a house.

Guess what’s on my to-do list for today.

I can’t help but feel, however, that the Universe is trying in its usual, not so subtle way, to remind me to be careful.  Out of the blue, a nephew of mine (unaware of my roof related plans for today) picked today to mention in passing the only Bible quote to my knowledge that deals with people falling off a roof and dying.  (Deuteronomy 22:8, for you scholars out there; no link so you can better pick your favorite translation, but the message is pretty clear in all of them.)

Maybe I don’t actually need to get on the roof today . . .