Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Ice Skating: Final Week (And A Fire)


Today was Quinn's last day for Ice Skating lessons. Fairly uneventful all things considered. He's still not nearly as proficient as a bunch of the other kids, but he's improved so much from that first week that I think you have to qualify it as a success. He got a ribbon to recognize his completion of the course, I'll try and get a picture of him with that tomorrow. Everyone in the class got one in case you were wondering.




Today the instructors drew paths on the ground that the kids then would maneuver around (which I believe is barely visible in a couple of the pictures on the ground). All the kids seem to have a lot of fun following the multiple paths (it was kind of like a maze).



And here's something I don't normally see at work. A raging brushfire out my office window. The whole area around the on ramp onto I66 at this one spot just lit up. Since that area is closed in, there wasn't much danger of it spreading, but it sure caused some traffic problems for a little bit. At first I thought someone's car had simply overheated, but once there was a huge pillar of smoke and flames going up the hill, that theory sort of went by the wayside. I have no idea what started it, but if I had to guess I would say 'someone throwing a cigarette out a window'. Either that or it was terrorists trying to disrupt people's commute home.


I never found a window where I could take a really good picture of it without reflections on the window screwing everything up, so all the pictures are a bit lacking in clarity. And since the sun was setting, I don't think that was helping any either. I tried going up to the roof, but it was locked. We did do our part and tried to call 911 to report the fire, but we got put on hold. I sincerely hope we were put on hold due to 911 being so flooded with I66 motorists calling it in that they were simply swamped temporarily.



This is a really short video of the fire as the firefighters were finishing putting it out.

3 comments:

BullBunky said...

I didn't know that 911 could put you on hold. That's odd isn't it?

JamesF said...

I assume it's like triage. Where if you only have N people manning the phones and N + M calls come in, something has to give.

Curt Sawyer said...

911: 911 Operator, what is your emergency?

JB: This is Jack Bauer, CTU. The terrorists have the nuclear...

911: Please hold, apparently there is a fire in an uninhabited area surrounded by pavement.

[click]