well, hello, all! been off of SG for a while, since my laptop tried to burn the house down. oog had to wait for a few days for a new charger.
we have probably the first ibook, and it's so old it no longer holds a charge , and stays plugged into the charger 24/7. welp, my 14 year old son used the computer while i was at work, and within moments of his waking up the laptop, the charge cord shorted out, smoke, sparked and began melting- all while on a pile of paperwork-. luckily, he was calm and handled the situation perfectly.
this is the 2nd near fire in a couple months!!!! the previous was a bit more dangerous - the cat had knocked over our lizard's heat lamp onto the floor. for about 2 hours, it lay on our 1890's hardwood floor, and charred. i was all through the house trying to find the source of the smoke. i looked in the basement, kitchen, room after room, but didn't think of my son's room (where this occurred) because he has no fire starting material in there. we don't allow candles, scarfs over lightbulbs, etc. because we live in an old house and are very fire-conscious.
i finally called my neighbor, who found the lamp on the floor. if it had charred through to the space in between the floor and the downstairs ceiling, fire would quickly have happened. as it was, we basically conducted a fire-safety standard test. and our 200 year old heartwood floors held up quite nicely, charring, but resisting open flame for 2 hours.
we now have a nice black charcoal circle.
so, we've gone over our house fire procedure with the kids, and tied down the lizard's lamp. we took note of where the fire extinguishers are. fire safety is something you don't often think about, because thankfully, fire is rare.
our town has a problem with fire. student housing, AND an arsonist. there are 5 colleges in our town, and students like cheap housing. cheap in commutable distance to NYC means poorly kept and dangerous. one fire recently claimed the lives of two students. i kept thinking of that as i hunted for the fire that day. i kept thinking, how can there be this much smoke, and yet, our smoke alarm isn't going off??!! well, it wasn't physical smoke, but a lighter smoke, a strong smelling vapor that precedes smoke. so, how inebriated must you be to sleep through the smell, then the stronger smoke, and still then the siren of the smoke alarms?
it's a recipe for disaster, dumbass blackout drunk kids, and crappy housing. tenants take the batteries out of their smoke alarms because they go off when they cook, or the batteries run down and don't get replaced, just removed because it makes an irritating beeping. and then people die, as a result. we've had far too many fires recently.
so, our fire plan - the kids are told where to wait outside, so we can see from any point in the house that they are safe, and they are told never, ever, ever to go back in the house for the pets. the animals are mom and dad's job to get.
annnd, in coiffure news, i gots mah hair did!
we have probably the first ibook, and it's so old it no longer holds a charge , and stays plugged into the charger 24/7. welp, my 14 year old son used the computer while i was at work, and within moments of his waking up the laptop, the charge cord shorted out, smoke, sparked and began melting- all while on a pile of paperwork-. luckily, he was calm and handled the situation perfectly.
this is the 2nd near fire in a couple months!!!! the previous was a bit more dangerous - the cat had knocked over our lizard's heat lamp onto the floor. for about 2 hours, it lay on our 1890's hardwood floor, and charred. i was all through the house trying to find the source of the smoke. i looked in the basement, kitchen, room after room, but didn't think of my son's room (where this occurred) because he has no fire starting material in there. we don't allow candles, scarfs over lightbulbs, etc. because we live in an old house and are very fire-conscious.
i finally called my neighbor, who found the lamp on the floor. if it had charred through to the space in between the floor and the downstairs ceiling, fire would quickly have happened. as it was, we basically conducted a fire-safety standard test. and our 200 year old heartwood floors held up quite nicely, charring, but resisting open flame for 2 hours.
we now have a nice black charcoal circle.
so, we've gone over our house fire procedure with the kids, and tied down the lizard's lamp. we took note of where the fire extinguishers are. fire safety is something you don't often think about, because thankfully, fire is rare.
our town has a problem with fire. student housing, AND an arsonist. there are 5 colleges in our town, and students like cheap housing. cheap in commutable distance to NYC means poorly kept and dangerous. one fire recently claimed the lives of two students. i kept thinking of that as i hunted for the fire that day. i kept thinking, how can there be this much smoke, and yet, our smoke alarm isn't going off??!! well, it wasn't physical smoke, but a lighter smoke, a strong smelling vapor that precedes smoke. so, how inebriated must you be to sleep through the smell, then the stronger smoke, and still then the siren of the smoke alarms?
it's a recipe for disaster, dumbass blackout drunk kids, and crappy housing. tenants take the batteries out of their smoke alarms because they go off when they cook, or the batteries run down and don't get replaced, just removed because it makes an irritating beeping. and then people die, as a result. we've had far too many fires recently.
so, our fire plan - the kids are told where to wait outside, so we can see from any point in the house that they are safe, and they are told never, ever, ever to go back in the house for the pets. the animals are mom and dad's job to get.
annnd, in coiffure news, i gots mah hair did!
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Now that is horrible story.
Your spouse must be eternally shamed & mortified.
Let's hope this year is both more enjoyable
and less remarkable.
Her live-in BOYFRIEND, however... he was another story. He got very mad at me when he walked into my room while I was out and saw unattended candles. I ended up moving out of the house over that fight.