Tuesday, April 29, 2008
When The Earthquake Wasn't Enough
7:30 a.m. / 07:30
I believe that post-before-last I made some sort of promise or guarantee type of statement to fill you in on events later in the day on the Friday of the earthquake. You'd really think that an earthquake would get a day of it's own, and I suppose for most people that's how it was, but I got to have a second unnerving experience that day.
In the early afternoon I ventured out to buy some wrenches and stop by work to say hi and talk about the earthquake. Maybe an hour after I got home, I was in my garage tightening the bolts on my new lawnmower with one of my new wrenches when I heard a series of loud bangs. It occurred to me that it might be a gun, but I sort of doubted it. I am extremely far from being a gun expert, but my big clue here was the number of bangs. I didn't actually count them but it sounded like too many for one gun and the pattern seemed too even for two guns or one gun re-loaded. One way or another, I was alright.
Then came the sirens. Okay... maybe I was wrong. I put down my wrench and walked in through the house to the front porch. I happened to have the day off because I was working over the weekend, but I wasn't the only one home on the street that afternoon. Most of my neighbors are older and they were all out on their front porches before I got to mine. There were police cars all up and down the street. All the neighbors were checking in with one another. No one knew what was going on for sure, not even the police who were asking everyone but me if they saw anything. (Do I look unreliable? Do you think it was the Spare An Animal; Eat A Vegetable hat?) I was darting in an out of the house while the police checked things out. I went to lock up my garage and let EvilDucky, who was at work, know what was going on (go Gmail chat!), since her house isn't far from mine.
My last trip out to the front porch four police officers were walking down the middle of my street with (I think) rifles. People, I grew up in the ghetto (or what passes for a ghetto here) and I've never seen that before. I guess I was doing a really good job of looking like a concerned citizen, because one of the rifle-baring officers turned and looked at me kind of funny and asked if anyone had told me it was just a car backfiring. HA! I was just kind of like "Oh... good" and turned and ran in the house before I started laughing.
I believe that post-before-last I made some sort of promise or guarantee type of statement to fill you in on events later in the day on the Friday of the earthquake. You'd really think that an earthquake would get a day of it's own, and I suppose for most people that's how it was, but I got to have a second unnerving experience that day.
In the early afternoon I ventured out to buy some wrenches and stop by work to say hi and talk about the earthquake. Maybe an hour after I got home, I was in my garage tightening the bolts on my new lawnmower with one of my new wrenches when I heard a series of loud bangs. It occurred to me that it might be a gun, but I sort of doubted it. I am extremely far from being a gun expert, but my big clue here was the number of bangs. I didn't actually count them but it sounded like too many for one gun and the pattern seemed too even for two guns or one gun re-loaded. One way or another, I was alright.
Then came the sirens. Okay... maybe I was wrong. I put down my wrench and walked in through the house to the front porch. I happened to have the day off because I was working over the weekend, but I wasn't the only one home on the street that afternoon. Most of my neighbors are older and they were all out on their front porches before I got to mine. There were police cars all up and down the street. All the neighbors were checking in with one another. No one knew what was going on for sure, not even the police who were asking everyone but me if they saw anything. (Do I look unreliable? Do you think it was the Spare An Animal; Eat A Vegetable hat?) I was darting in an out of the house while the police checked things out. I went to lock up my garage and let EvilDucky, who was at work, know what was going on (go Gmail chat!), since her house isn't far from mine.
My last trip out to the front porch four police officers were walking down the middle of my street with (I think) rifles. People, I grew up in the ghetto (or what passes for a ghetto here) and I've never seen that before. I guess I was doing a really good job of looking like a concerned citizen, because one of the rifle-baring officers turned and looked at me kind of funny and asked if anyone had told me it was just a car backfiring. HA! I was just kind of like "Oh... good" and turned and ran in the house before I started laughing.
