Good Morning Dear Readers!
There is just never a dull moment around here. Okay, technically there are a lot of moments that can be considered “dull”, however, this week doesn’t feel like one of those. Thursday my Mom headed to the ER with a possible heart attack (still in the “we don’t know what you had” stage – not kidding), and yesterday as Mr. Muse and I were turning the corner to drive to the house, we were DENIED by Police Blockade. After a few minutes of explaining where our house was (and verifying that it wasn’t on fire), the officers told us we could go home, but had to go STRAIGHT home.
I can’t make this stuff up.
At first Mr. Muse (and later I learned a bunch of the neighbors) were hoping that what we call the “Meth House” (disclosure: we DO NOT know if Meth is manufactured at that house, but that’s the story we make up due to all of the transient activity that goes on there), had blown up. Sadly, the “Meth House” is still standing… sonofa… But, there was a very large grass/brush/forest fire that was going on and it did burn up two abandoned structures.
Some moron very interesting person… no, let’s go with my first instinct, some moron, decided that yesterday was the perfect day to burn brush… while the grass was dry, and the winds were gusting at 40 MPH…. and they live in a damn pine forest (Jack Pines no less – go learn something cool about them here). So, the fire got away from them. It nearly burned down half a dozen occupied homes, but managed to burn only two unoccupied homes. (I smell a conspiracy! Oh wait… that just smells like forest fire.)
The Firefighters told one neighbor that they wouldn’t want to be in this person’s shoes because they didn’t have a burn permit and are now responsible for ALL of the property damage, the two lost homes and for the operation of all of the emergency vehicles. Y’all… the only branches of the government that appeared to be missing were the military, the CIA, the FBI and FEMA. There were squad cars, ambulances, fire trucks, tanker trucks, all-terrain vehicles, bulldozers and an AIRPLANE – just to name a few.
I got the scoop from a neighbor who lives back down where all the emergency crews were battling the blaze last night. Of course, that made me thankful I got out of my shell at one point and gave my phone number to the neighbors and some of them responded back with their own.
Too bad the “Meth House” didn’t go up in flames… that would have really improved the neighborhood.
On another note… it’s Valborgsmässoafton (that’s Swedish, cause well, we hang with a lot of Swedes) or Spring Fry Fest today! Spring Fry Fest is a smaller gathering since our Fall Fry Fest has become something of an event with pumpkin chunkin and so on. Just eight or nine people this go around and way more food than we will possibly be able to eat. Even though it’s all being made gluten-free, I guarantee my stomach is going to hurt later.
Musings of the Amusing Muse 
Oy, WTF is wrong with people?! I’m so glad your house is okay and that the only things that were harmed were abandoned structures — and I completely agree that moron is the best term for whoever started that whole mess. I’m from Colorado, where wildfires have become our biggest scourge, and a huge fire devastated part of my hometown last summer. So, to say the least, I know that fires, especially in dry pine forests, are nothing to f**k with.
I hope your weekend is calm and filled with R&R, especially after the week you’ve had!
Yeah – I’m an advocate of Forest Management that includes CONTROLLED and MANAGED burns. I have a lot of state forest land right around my house and it is SO overgrown! I know it’s just a matter of time before we have a big fire because they’re ignoring the management of it. Mr. Muse and I have been managing our lot, mostly cutting down oaks that are dead or dying of Oak Wilt, but we have quite a few Jack Pines that are in need of some attention as there are dead ones tangled in among the live ones and I just look at that stand of Jack Pines and think “that’s going to go up in flames with little effort”.
Today we’ll have a great, though not necessarily relaxing, day with friends… and now that we know the emergency workers are still out stomping out hot spots due to tankers driving past the house, we may have extra friends by the end of the day if we send out word that they’re welcome to stop in for food and refreshments.
Learning about pumpkin chunkin has just made my morning! Ha! You can make a game out of anything, it seems. What are you eating at your fry fest?
LOL Mr. Muse built a trebuchet last year and we put it to the Punkin’ Chunkin’ test – was pretty awesome!!
I haven’t got the full list yet, but some of the stand-bys will be bacon, shrimp, corn on the cob and chicken drumsticks. I have makings for s’mores later in the evening, too!
You are right . You couldn’t make it up. That’s more than enough events for a year, let alone a drive home and the rest. Free drama eh, Who can beat it