The fire that gutted an apartment building in the city over the weekend has been labeled as "suspicious". It apparently started in a vacant suite in the building.
The Bag Lady's friend works the early shift at a local doughnut shop, and her hubby drove her to work on Saturday morning at 3:30 am. When he arrived back home, he went upstairs to their apartment to get ready to go to his own job. He was shaving when the fire alarm went off. Having worked as a volunteer fire fighter in the past, he immediately left his apartment and made his way downstairs. When he got to the second floor, he could smell smoke. When he realized that the other tenants were not responding to the alarm, he roused the caretaker and the two of them started banging on doors and ensured that everyone got out safely. The Bag Lady wonders how many people would have been injured or perhaps even killed if he hadn't been awake and alerted people to the danger.
The fire department responded and eventually thought they had the fire contained, so they allowed him to go back into the building to collect what he needed for his day on the job. He called his wife to tell her about the fire, but assured her that it was out and everything was okay. Off he went to work. Unbeknownst to all involved, the fire was still burning inside the walls, and eventually flared up again.
The Bag Lady's friend got an inkling that all was NOT well when someone from the fire department came into the doughnut shop and ordered coffee and doughnuts for 35 firefighters who were working on a blazing fire.
The Bag Lady's friends, along with about 40 other residents of the building, lost everything except the clothes on their backs. But no one died, and material things can be replaced. There has been a huge outpouring of support for the victims of the fire, and the management company has assured everyone that there will be places for them to live in other buildings owned by the company.
Get up now and check your smoke detectors, 'kay? If the smoke detectors had malfunctioned, things would have been far worse.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Oh No!
An apartment building burned to the ground in the city on Friday night. Friends of ours lost everything except the clothes on their backs. So did 40 or so other people.
A month before Christmas. What a tragedy.
A month before Christmas. What a tragedy.
Friday, November 27, 2009
Hmmmm.......?
The Bag Lady is the mistress of half-finished projects. She eventually does get things done, but her house is almost always in a state of turmoil. Perhaps this is due to some deep-seated fear that if she finishes everything, she'll die! As long as she has things to do, she reasons, she has to stay alive to do them. (she didn't say it was RATIONAL!) (She is also, by the way, very superstitious and is even now contemplating removing the sentence about dying.....)
In any case, she still hasn't finished the hallway (cut her some slack, she's been working every day since she finished the painting, and has to work again tonight....) and she has some vague ideas in her head about hanging some sort of rail from which to hang an assortment of yet-to-be-determined artwork/paintings/photographs. Or not.
Naturally, she forgot to take a "before" picture of the wall she is talking about. And the one picture that she did take is rather poor.
Here is the only "before" picture she thought to take:
This is the wall with a coat of primer on it. (well, okay, this is part of the wall with a coat of primer on it.)
And this is what the hallway looks like right now (seriously... just took these a minute ago):
This is the wall she's talking about. It's only eight feet long.
She's thinking of doing something like this:
What do you think? She's open to suggestions....
(Oh, and by the way, there is really quite a difference between the colour in the before and after, even if it doesn't look like it in these pictures!)
In any case, she still hasn't finished the hallway (cut her some slack, she's been working every day since she finished the painting, and has to work again tonight....) and she has some vague ideas in her head about hanging some sort of rail from which to hang an assortment of yet-to-be-determined artwork/paintings/photographs. Or not.
Naturally, she forgot to take a "before" picture of the wall she is talking about. And the one picture that she did take is rather poor.
Here is the only "before" picture she thought to take:
This is the wall with a coat of primer on it. (well, okay, this is part of the wall with a coat of primer on it.)
And this is what the hallway looks like right now (seriously... just took these a minute ago):
This is the wall she's talking about. It's only eight feet long.
She's thinking of doing something like this:
What do you think? She's open to suggestions....(Oh, and by the way, there is really quite a difference between the colour in the before and after, even if it doesn't look like it in these pictures!)
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Random Photo
The Bag Lady was going through some of her old pictures, wondering what she had been photographing around this time last year. These pictures were taken in the late afternoon when she was out and about with the Rancher.
She liked the light play on the trees and snow.
Happy Thanksgiving to all her American readers!
She liked the light play on the trees and snow.
Happy Thanksgiving to all her American readers!
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch
(Or, How the Bag Lady Spent Her Day Off)
The Rancher and the Bag Lady weaned calves yesterday. They had been planning on doing it for a few weeks now, but things kept getting in the way (work, weather, illness.....) Yesterday was bright and sunny and the temperature relatively mild, so it is a good time to take the calves away from their mothers. If you wean them when the weather is poor (cold, rainy, snowing), it increases the chances of the calves getting sick.
The calves had an opportunity in the morning to have a good last drink of milk, and once they were locked away from their mothers in the corral, the Rancher and the Bag Lady gave them lots of hay to eat and spread out lots of straw in the shed for them to sleep on. Things will be a little noisy for a few days around the ol' stump ranch, because the mamas will be bawling at their calves, trying to get them to come and have a drink to ease their aching bags, but once they realize that they can't get to them, things will quiet down again and the cows will go about the business of eating and drinking and growing next year's calf! They will also be grateful that they aren't still feeding their calves when the weather gets really cold. That is really hard on their bags - when the calf finishes drinking, those wet teats freeze!
Oh.... was that too much information? Sorry. It's just a fact of life. The Bag Lady sometimes thinks she should try not to be too plain-spoken about things like that, but then she realizes that most of the people who read her blog are intelligent adults, so probably won't be offended.
They also took some of their older cows to auction on Monday, which made the Bag Lady sad. She doesn't like to see them go, but when they can no longer do their job (and with the scarcity of feed this year due to the drought), they have to be sold. The Bag Lady and the Rancher have pensioned off several cows over the years, allowing them to die on the ranch of natural causes, but that is not exactly sound economic practice. The Bag Lady has a habit of becoming too attached to some of the animals.... she sometimes thinks she isn't quite cut out for this job.
After they separated cows and calves in the morning, the Bag Lady finished painting her hallway. She is pleased with the results, but isn't quite ready for the "reveal". She wants the paint to dry so she can see if she needs to do any touch-ups, then she'll replace the light switch covers, etc. and hang the paintings before she shows you what she's done. (Besides those reasons, she's just too darned tired to take pictures right now!)
She cleaned up her mess, then made supper. Then she cleaned up that mess and made some pomegranate liqueur. It needs to steep for a few weeks before it's ready, and she wanted it for Christmas (which, by the way, is a month from today. Eeek!). In between all of these tasks, she did some laundry so she has something clean to wear to work tomorrow.
Did someone mention day off?
The Rancher and the Bag Lady weaned calves yesterday. They had been planning on doing it for a few weeks now, but things kept getting in the way (work, weather, illness.....) Yesterday was bright and sunny and the temperature relatively mild, so it is a good time to take the calves away from their mothers. If you wean them when the weather is poor (cold, rainy, snowing), it increases the chances of the calves getting sick.
The calves had an opportunity in the morning to have a good last drink of milk, and once they were locked away from their mothers in the corral, the Rancher and the Bag Lady gave them lots of hay to eat and spread out lots of straw in the shed for them to sleep on. Things will be a little noisy for a few days around the ol' stump ranch, because the mamas will be bawling at their calves, trying to get them to come and have a drink to ease their aching bags, but once they realize that they can't get to them, things will quiet down again and the cows will go about the business of eating and drinking and growing next year's calf! They will also be grateful that they aren't still feeding their calves when the weather gets really cold. That is really hard on their bags - when the calf finishes drinking, those wet teats freeze!
Oh.... was that too much information? Sorry. It's just a fact of life. The Bag Lady sometimes thinks she should try not to be too plain-spoken about things like that, but then she realizes that most of the people who read her blog are intelligent adults, so probably won't be offended.
They also took some of their older cows to auction on Monday, which made the Bag Lady sad. She doesn't like to see them go, but when they can no longer do their job (and with the scarcity of feed this year due to the drought), they have to be sold. The Bag Lady and the Rancher have pensioned off several cows over the years, allowing them to die on the ranch of natural causes, but that is not exactly sound economic practice. The Bag Lady has a habit of becoming too attached to some of the animals.... she sometimes thinks she isn't quite cut out for this job.
After they separated cows and calves in the morning, the Bag Lady finished painting her hallway. She is pleased with the results, but isn't quite ready for the "reveal". She wants the paint to dry so she can see if she needs to do any touch-ups, then she'll replace the light switch covers, etc. and hang the paintings before she shows you what she's done. (Besides those reasons, she's just too darned tired to take pictures right now!)
She cleaned up her mess, then made supper. Then she cleaned up that mess and made some pomegranate liqueur. It needs to steep for a few weeks before it's ready, and she wanted it for Christmas (which, by the way, is a month from today. Eeek!). In between all of these tasks, she did some laundry so she has something clean to wear to work tomorrow.
Did someone mention day off?
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Mini Rant
The Bag Lady must lead a fairly sheltered life. That's not to say that she is "innocent", but rather that she chooses to ignore a lot of what passes for entertainment in this increasingly strange world.
She was puttering around the house last night when the Rancher called her to come and see something on TV (what he actually said was "come and see THIS", but it's difficult to convey the shock and disgust in his voice with printed words). She went andstared in open-mouthed amazement watched a performance by a young woman on a popular late-night talk show. Now, the Bag Lady isn't going to name any names, and she doesn't want to sound like a prude (in fact, she has been known to do a few wild and crazy things in her life, but only after a few too many cocktails, and not on national television) but she could not believe what she was seeing.
The only other thing she'll say on the topic is "Honey, you ain't no Lady!"
She was puttering around the house last night when the Rancher called her to come and see something on TV (what he actually said was "come and see THIS", but it's difficult to convey the shock and disgust in his voice with printed words). She went and
The only other thing she'll say on the topic is "Honey, you ain't no Lady!"
Monday, November 23, 2009
Monday Regrets
The Bag Lady thinks she may have screwed up. On the other hand, maybe not.
On Sunday, she decided to paint her hallway. Spur of the moment decisions are not necessarily smart.....
But she can fix it. Right after work today, she is going to pick up another can of paint!
Actually, she really likes the colour that she chose, it just needs to be lighter. She'll add some white, slap on another coat and it will all be perfect.
Really it will.
On Sunday, she decided to paint her hallway. Spur of the moment decisions are not necessarily smart.....
But she can fix it. Right after work today, she is going to pick up another can of paint!
Actually, she really likes the colour that she chose, it just needs to be lighter. She'll add some white, slap on another coat and it will all be perfect.
Really it will.
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