SMOKE??!!

Let me set the scene….

Ears: In our apartment off and on all day we had heard this banging, scraping and thudding. It sounded like major construction work, but where? We tried to blame the church music director who lives just under us downstairs, but he wouldn’t claim it. So, it had to be in the building that abuts our back wall. We do not share a common wall, but it would be hard to slip a thin sheet of paper between the walls. Sounds evidently carry very well through these stone buildings.

Eyes: I was in the kitchen, getting a drink of water when I looked out the window for a glimpse of the Eiffel Tower…..which I often do. The Eiffel was coming in and out of view as we had a dense fog/cloud floating around above the city buildings. Just outside my window I noticed more grayness floating around and went into the living area to point out to Don and his brother that the fog was really doing funny things today. I opened the window to show them more clearly and……

Nose: SMOKE

Now when you’re on the fifth floor of a building, that can be a bit unnerving. I grabbed my keys, then my sister-in-law and I headed down stairs to check it out. (Don and Ray were much too involved with the computer at that time to get excited.) Since no one in the reception area seemed alarmed, Laurie and I headed outside to see what we could see. Indeed, there was smoke coming out of the upstairs windows of the building nextdoor…..and three rather sheepish looking workers with their hard hats still on standing on the curb. One worker had a welding mask on his hat, so it wasn’t too hard to figure out what had probably happened.

I went back into the church and called Don to bring my camera and come on down as there were three fire trucks and multiple firemen to watch. The firemen quickly unloaded ladders and hoses…..which they pulled or took upstairs. The smoke was gone quickly and the crowd that had gathered gradually dispersed. We were just glad that this wasn't a major disaster!!!

As we went back inside, I noticed one of the hard hatted workers on his cell phone. I thought to myself that I was glad it wasn’t me that had to make the call to his boss or the building owner!!!

P.S. They were back to work in all their loudness the next morning, much to our dismay.

(We lost our “smoky” pictures when we were transferring them from the camera to the computer. Our apartment is located at the top of the “Church House”where the 3 peaked, windowed areas are…and the smoke was coming out of the top windows of the shorter building. Don has some video of the eager firemen that you might find amusing.)