Life is...normal

Well I'm back finally. I feel I have been out of the blog-o-sphere forever. I've just been catching up on some blogs and figured mine needed some updating. So the firestorm is over I suppose and life for us is pretty much back to normal. I do say that with some guilt, however, because I know there are so many people in our area who won't be able to say that for a very long time. Other than a long work week, a little less sleep than normal (which isn't much anyway), and realizing that we really need to clean out our closets so we can find our most valued treasures, our lives were pitifully little changed by the firestorm. I can only be grateful that we are safe and don't have to deal with the headache of property loss. Now we are starting to hear all the sad and touching stories related to all of the fires. I liked one story I heard this morning. Apparently a policeman who was getting ready to head up to the fire area was stopped on the street by a homeless man. The man asked if the policeman was going to the fires. When the policeman replied that he was, the homeless man handed the policeman his tent. A very meaningful gesture I thought. The closest effect of the fires that we felt personally was that the property of Ian's former boss was severly damaged and some of his animals were killed. It was very sad. It will definitely be a long recovery for many in our area.

Not to detract from the previous subject at all, but I must mention one little incident to end on a lighter note. There is actually one casualty of the last couple of weeks that I must report. Sadly, our trusted friend, the good old "Hoover Soft & Light" has sucked her last suck.

(By the way, being the traditonalist that I am, the fact that it is called a "soft & light" makes it female in my book. You may argue amongst yourselves if you disagree.) She was a good little vacuum that served us well. Hailing from the Logan Walmart, she cost us just $45 in the first year of our marriage. Now 8 years later she has sucked faithfully from Logan all the way to San Diego. Her last effort was in vacuuming almost the entire apartment, giving out just before she could get to the last corners of the kitchen. But alas, she did not go quietly. I was just vacuuming along, when the stench of burning rubber became decidely more pronounced. I put my face right down close to take a look into her depths, and yes, I saw sparks. That's when she exploded. Fearing for the safety of my scarless visage, I nearly jumped out of my skin and not wanting to touch the moaning vacuum I ran to the outlet and unplugged the vacuum, and then stood rooted to the spot with my eyes bulging and my heart racing. This is when Ian came running from the office.

"What was that?"

"The vacuum."

"What did you vacuum up?"

"Nothing. It exploded."

"Huh. It smells in here."

So guess what we bought at Walmart last weekend?