Enough With the Interesting Weeks Already!
I’m doing my best to start this week off right! The gardens around our office building are blooming. It is evident not only in the colors popping up, but also in the fragrance of the air. It is positively lovely to step outside for a few deep breaths now and again. So I started my morning off by appreciating one of the blooming plants while wearing some new shoes. I decided it was time to get more protective sandals for biking.
Some of you might have fallen of your chairs to learn that those feet decked out in eye popping red are mine! I have for years gone on about not liking red. But it seems my ban of all things red officially was lifted when I bought a red cover for my Kindle. I’ve since bought a few shirts/sweaters, yarn and now shoes in that bright hue. I’m still a bit picky about the tone of the red, but I think red is here to stay. Of course the orange and yellow also in the shoes helped to sell them. That and $30 off :-)
Things last week didn’t at first seem “interesting.” But when the interesting happened, it pretty much trumped the rest of the week. At about 3am on Thursday morning I woke up smelling smoke. Definitely wood/plant smoke. This happens probably at least once a year. We are not far from the foothills so it isn’t terribly rare to smell a wild fire a few ridges to the west or that. But I did my usual routine - take a turn about the entire house, being careful to check the handles of any closed doors to make sure they were cool etc. Everything was fine. Then I tried to visit my local paper’s web site on my smartphone to see if there were any nearby wildfires making the headlines. In the past Denver papers have been quicker to post than the local one, but I always have faith. That is until now. You can no longer read anything on the local paper’s site without a subscription (the mobile site, on the regular site you have 30 articles a month)! I think that is a huge *fail* for public safety and a poor policy! Anyway, I thought the smoke seemed awful strong and was just uneasy so I started looking out all the windows of the house, starting with stepping out the front door. Nothing. When I got back to the master bedroom I about had a heart attack. Not 200 ft from our window was a fire the size of a VW bug!
I saw no signs of people or fire trucks so I immediately dialed 911. From the time I placed my call to when the crew had packed up and left was about 30 or 40 minutes. I caught it while it was still quite small. The wind was also blowing it towards the sidewalk which I suspect slowed it down. Conditions here are super dry with the unusually high temps and lack of moisture. I’m not afraid to admit that I was freaking out though. There were sparks blowing in our direction. I woke up DH and we harnessed the dogs and packed up our laptops etc. and put them by the front door in case we needed to evacuate. Thankfully we didn’t. Though all that adrenaline prevented me from getting any more sleep. Thursday was a *very* long day to say the least!
Another way I started this week off right is thanks in part to the warm weather. It was finally above 60 by lunch time so I got to eat outside once again (something I haven’t done since my first week). This time I didn’t go with the obvious table on the deck, but opted to hide a bit in the garden. This meant an uninterrupted lunch break with just me, my Kindle and a salad! No interruptions to remove a paper jam or locate some office supply or whatever other things people feel cannot wait until my lunch break is over.
Did you start the week off right today? What helps you feel like the the day/week/month/year is moving in the right direction?
