Evacuate!!

Boy, we had some excitement last night! About 9:33 nor so,the fire alarms started screeching and blowing like they do...I stuck my head out the door to the hall and was told to get out of the building. So, I hitched up Fritz and went out through my sliding glass door..... Soon the parking lot was full of residents in various stages of nightwear. Of course rumors flew around - mostly that there was a fire on the second floor. Once we heard that, of course, we thought we smelled smoke...One fire engine came and two firemen got out in full gear..,.,it was curious to me that there was only one fire engine and only two firemen.,,...when the guy broke the toilet, that rated two trucks, a pickup and an ambulance! Of course we were worried about the folks in wheelchairs and otherwise impaired....they finally started to trickle out...,.All the time the alarms were going...and all the dogs except Fritz were in panic mode. It was difficult to hang on to them.,.,.Old fritz was completely unfazed by it all....more folks to pet him, was his thought!!

Come to find out it was a glitch in the sprinkler system,....no fire.....we could go back home.....and slowly and surely we did. Ella, the manager asked if I would make sure all was well on my hallway...along with my next door neighbor. Even tho' I don't know most of those folks yet, I agreed..... Then the next door lady knocked on the door and said we needed to check every four hours...was she kidding me? check what? I said okay and got ready for bed. Then, around 2:30 AM, there was a knock on my door (which I didn't hear but Fritz did) and it was next door Mary....all seemed well, she said so I could go to bed....thanks a lot! That's where I was!! Of course, I went back to bed and could not fall asleep.....so I got up again and turned on the TIVO and zoned out on a couple of shows and finally got to sleep at 4AM...So here it is - almost noon - and I have not had breakfast yet. I hate it when this happens - which it seems to be happening oftener these days.

I have friend two doors down who was in Fred Myer parking lot ...stepped out into a crosswalk, and got hit by a truck! Knocked her down and, miraculously (sp??) did not break any bones....but LOTS of internal bruising - putting her into a lot of pain and difficulty in breathing - She spent one night in the hospital and came home.....had to be taken back to the hospital the next day and came home again the same day....she is in some serious pain. She made her way down to the river - God only knows how! On the way back I could see she wasn't going to make4 it on her own.l...so I went and got a wheelchair (they keep 3 of them by the door for just this purpose ) and, with the help of another friend got her back to her apartment,,....All this happened yesterday afternoon. Needless to say last night's excitement she really didn't need !

That's life in the "old Folks" home for today.....Hopefully, today will be quieter!!!