On Monday, I returned to work after two weeks off (except for the day I had to go repair a computer so that we could actually ship things out, and being the MOD on Saturday with two weeks worth of invoices to reconcile.) The Credit Card processing failed which required about an hour to convince some tech support stooge that the problem was on their end, not locally. Just for the record, retail doesn't work all that well without credit anymore. I also had to cope with the fact the University's IT control is in complete disarray. Enough of that.
Tuesday was relatively peaceful, save for still dealing with the muck that comes when an outlet's only support isn't there for a period of time.
Wednesday was very interesting. Leave the work stuff aside (as I don't like writing about it anyway.) The building next door, ten feet from our house, caught fire. Most exciting. I was in the backyard and I smelled smoke. Our neighbor to the south only has wood heat, and I thought what was smelly was his lighting of the stove. That happens. Then a window blew out on the backside of the building to the north, so I ran inside and called 911.
I got hung up on by the 911 operator. She asked me the usual questions, name, address blah blah. She asked me the address of the building on fire. I told her I didn't know the exact address but it was probably 417 or or 419 on our block. (The addresses are a little weird here given block size and the configuration of the business designates.) I did tell her that it was the building directly to the north of us. She asked other questions, do you see flames: no. Do you think someone is inside: I don't know. She asked for my address again, and I told her. She asked for the address of the fire, and I again told her that I didn't know for certain but it was at the corner of Broadway and Avocado, just north of our house, across from the Bozeman Brewing company. She asked me my address again, and for the address of the building on fire. I was pretty frustrated at that point, and said "They'll see the smoke!" which was poring out of the back of the building through the broken window at that point. Her response was adorable: "There's no reason to be like that, Sir."
Seriously? Was the building next to her house on fire? No? No reason to be like that when I've already given the best description possible? I started to respond, and she hung up on me. I immediately ran outside and hooked up the hose. Even though the police wanted me to move across the street, No. This is my house, these are my animals, and I was going to defend it at all cost. Regardless of what I currently think of 911 dispatch, the response from the Bozeman police and the Bozeman Fire Units was absolutely tremendous. They knocked that fire out in one helluva hurry. I tend to think the speed of response was due, in part, because they saw the fricking smoke, just like I said.
There are some folks who want to give me credit for quickly calling this in. I don't feel like I deserve it. Others called this in as well, and they may have actually had an address that would satisfy dispatch. The response from the city's first responders deserves the credit.
Yesterday, our boiler unit decided to go even more wonky than it has been. In the last two days, I've put out $350 for plumbing. Go us!
I could write (and originally intended to) about the lame bullshit foisted up on other Montana blogs. It really isn't worth it; they really aren't worth it. It just hasn't been a nice week. This is not how I intended to spend October.
Sounds like you had an interesting week, Bro. Did you manage to catch the game on Thursday night? It was actually pretty interesting.
We will have to get together and commiserate.
Posted by: Moorcat | October 12, 2012 at 04:31 PM
You is a hero! If to not one else but your house and your animals, that's still good enough for me :)
Posted by: Brittany | October 12, 2012 at 07:01 PM