If the Brown House Blows Up, the Two Next to it Will Also Blow Up, but You Should Be Fine

Last night, around 9:30 pm I began witnessing my circle filling up with Questar trucks, vans, and tractors. Yes, giant tractors. Then I witnessed my neighbors from 3 of the 6 houses on our circle, including the house directly next to us, evacuating. Then, the yellow tape went up across their yards and houses. Then the orange barricades in the yard of the brown house (2 away from us). Then the spotlights come on. Then there are men digging a gigantic hole (at least 5 feet deep) in the neighbor's yard.

This can't be good.

My husband goes over to see what's going on, and apparently there is a main gas line leak somewhere in the neighbor's front yard. Seeing as 3 houses were evacuated, my husband asks if we should leave too. "We have 4 kids," he tells the Questar guy. The Questar guy reassures him that our house and our persons are not in danger.

The spotlights, trucks, tools, men, and noise continue until after midnight. Then again this morning, the circle is filled up with vehicles and people, but they appear to be filling in the giant hole, so all must be well.

I also see my neighbor's returning, so I go to talk to them and find out more information.

The woman from the brown house tells me about how she smelled gas in her front yard and made a phone call. When Questar arrived, they immediately evacuated that house and the two immediately next to it. And I mean IMMEDIATELY. He told them (which I don't think was clearly relayed to my husband when he spoke to the Questar guys): "If your house blows up, the 2 immediately next door will also blow up. You all need to leave now."

Hmmmm. So if 3 houses on our circle were to blow up in the middle of the night--including the one right next to us--we'd be fine? Really? We'd be fine? Seems to me that half the circle blowing up would have some impact on the remaining half of the circle. I'm just sayin.

Long Weekend Math

10 miles walked
+
83 pages read
+
47 hours slept
+
1 Hearts tournament won
+
3 parties attended
+
1 bottle of wine consumed
+
108 Pictures uploaded
+
1 pet acquired
+
½ mile run
=
1 teacher re-energized

A Snake in the Road

Two boys on their bikes
A woman in her yard
A snake in a box
A dresser in a truck
A bruise on my face
Dinner company on their way
Woman crying on the couch
Ice cubes in a bag
A boy in the kitchen
Potato peeler in his hand
Funeral potatoes in the oven
Dinner ready just in time
Five lessons learned on Sunday:

Dressers are too damn heavy
Facial injuries hurt like hell
My son cooks pretty well
Talking to strangers has consequences
My life's a Seinfeld episode

Guess What my Boys Brought Home

Yep, you guessed it.

They were riding their bikes through the neighborhood when they spotted the reptile slithering across the road. Ignoring their mother's advice about "don't talk to strangers" they asked a woman in a nearby yard if she had a box they could put the snake in to carry it home.

At first I didn't believe them when they came running into the circle (having left their bikes at woman with the box's house) screaming, "Guess what! Guess what! We caught a snake!"

Of course, you know the next question: "Can we keep him mom, pleeeeeeeeeease?"

Fortunately, our neighbor works at a reptile store and is a snake expert.

He told us all about how this snake will grow to be 3 feet long, how it will eat a gold fish a day, and how its eyes will turn blue when it is about to shed its skin. He even had a spare cage in his garage that was not being used by any of his 10 snakes.

So now we have a snake named Frank living in Christopher's room. If the snake ever escapes its cage, I will need a place to live until it is found and returned to its cage.

Things That Happened This Morning While I Was Conducting A Live Audio Chat With Online Students

1. I spilled water on my lap.
2. I grabbed a flying bug with my hand and squished it (a very Karate Kid kind of move)
3. I used the end of a pen to squish a crawling bug who was making a home on my roles.
4. I got an email informing me that my proposal to CCCC has been ACCEPTED!

btw, the good news from CCCC made me forget my concern about bug guts being everywhere and my worry about where the hell all these bugs were coming from and why they were in my office.