Grandkids and other Fun Stuff

We had our grandson Daniel here last week, along with his friend Daniel who is 18 months older. The two Daniels have been best buddies for about nine years now. Daniel's sister Angela was here a couple of weeks ago, along with the "other" Daniel's brother Ivan. We love having the grandkids around, although they are getting older. Angela will start fourth grade this fall and Daniel enters 9th grade. Where does the time go?

Yesterday I got to do one of my favorite things; shop with a purpose. We have a family friend who is having a hard time financially. Her two kids (here to play with Angela and Daniel) start school tomorrow and there wasn't money for new school uniforms. I always used to get a new outfit for at least two grandchildren every fall, sometimes more. I "grandopted" Kerrigan and Blake and went shopping for the bare necessities: uniform pants, shirts, undies and sox, plus a backpack and a few school supplies. It felt wonderful and the kids were so excited. Kerrigan's mom has to get a size smaller pants as she is to skinny and they didnt' have a "slim" in her size. Oh well, one trip to exchange an item isn't too bad.

We are having summer here interspersed with some cool weather. Sarah and I were out in the pool yesterday, but it is supposed to cool down again for a few days, then warm up a gain into the mid to high nineties. I enjoy the summer. In the high desert where we lived it got hot in April or May and stayed hot until November. On the other hand, there were a gazillion stars in the sky at night.

Sirens, sirens and more sirens, the thick smell of smoke. Right after Sarah and I got out of the pool yesterday all the excitement began. Fargo started to howl and I peeked over the fence. OMG the trucks were directly across the street and smoke was billowing from the rear of the house high into the sky. I quickly dressed and harnessed Fargo and we went out with about two dozen others to "looky loo". By the time Fargo and I got outside another four fire trucks, an ambulance and a fire marshalls vehicles had also arrived. Turns out that the neighbors fired up their outdoor bar-b-que and it somehow caught the patio overhand on fire and spread rapidly from there. So many responders were because the lady of the house informed the first crew that they had just filled the tank with propane for the bar-b-que. Funny, all those crews on standby "in case", but the lookers weren't made to move back any further than the house next door or across the street, as we are. The fire department brought in two big fans and cleared the house of smoke and I think the residents were back in before bedtime. Our other neighbors arrived as all the commotion was ending and said what it shock it was to drive onto your street to a bevy of emergency vehicles. I recalled doing this not once, but twice.

Our first fire occurred when our two older boys were four and six, or perhaps a year older. We had a ton of company, about 14 of us in the house at the time. My youngest son had an ear ache and my father-in-law-and I took him to the doctors. Ernie was at work. As I was leaving the doctor's, I got a call warning me that the fire engines were at the house, but that everybody (the kids) was alright. Both Ernie and I came home to the fire trucks in front of the house and to two frightened and chastised little boys. They had gone into our closet with matches and one of them caught a dry cleaning bad that went "poof" in flames. The boys carefully shut the heavy wooden sliding doors and tip toed outside. When one of our guests came in from outside, he asked what was burning.. nothing that was cooking, so he went looking. When he got to the master bedroom, and slid the closet doors open the fire took off like wildfire. We had to repain the room and the bathroom next to it. rebuild the closet and have the hardwood floors in the bedroom and hallway replaced and the bathroom repainted and retiled. The only clothes either of us had left was what was in the laundry hamper in the basement, on our backs or at the dry cleaners.

Four years or so ago when we were living at our sons home in El Dorado Hills, a fire started at the corner of the fence in the front yard. The fire marshall said it was spontaneous combustion. We always suspected the neighbor woman of accidentally throwing a lit cigarette butt into the wood chips. At any rate, when I came home from the grocery store I saw two fire trucks in front of the house and Ernie sitting outside in a lawn chair. When I first drove onto our street I feared that the toddler next door had somehow fallen into their pool, so I was almost relieved to realize that the trucks were at our house instead. Damaged a good chunk of fence, the door to the garage, the side of the house there, one bathroom window frame and the interior end-part of the garage. When we moved out, all looked as good as new.

I can tell that it is past my bedtime and morning comes early. Peace.