Hospitals and Fire Alarms at Bingo?

 It was a nice cool breezy morning, perfect for patio sitting with my cup-O-Joe.  Sometimes I have to guess what's going on in the neighborhood by the smells.  The garlic plant was up and running ... LOVE that smell.  There were no skunks that I could detect, but they would have been MUCH better than the lovely aroma of chicken manure being distributed over all the orchards that surround me.  

Ever smelled it?  Let me just say there is nothing as rank as that smell ... and since we have dozens of big chicken farms around the country, they have MORE than enough product to stink up half of California.  That smell and coffee don't exactly go together, so I came inside.

I have a long list of honey dos, so I decided to get to it.  I called Grand Design for a replacement handle for the grey tank.  I picked one up in Yuma last year, but didn't realize it required threads, which I found out 200 miles down the road, this does NOT have.

It must be held on with a set screw.  Here's what the nice serviceman told me.  They added the last parts to this rig when the "killer outbreak" began.  They used whatever cheap parts they could find to finish the last rigs on the line.  Not only do they not have a replacement handle, they don't even know WHERE the parts came from and they have nothing that will work because they all have threads.  I'm stuck using pliers if I want to dump the gray tank.  Anyone have any amazing ideas about how I could stick a handle on this?

Well that was it ... I didn't get anything else on the list done, so I headed for the sewing room.  I stacked two quilts up on my chair in an attempt to raise me up so my back wouldn't complain quite so much.  Two more squares appeared on the wall.  Not much progress, but the accuracy on these complicated quilts has to be perfect.  And so at last I was OFF TO BINGO!

Yes ... this is an ambulance.  Luckily it was not for me ... or any Bingo player, thank goodness.  It WAS however for the husband of one of my favorite gals.  She came running up before the games even started and said I HAVE TO LEAVE.  

Come to find out her husband had been using a grinder of some kind.  It slipped and tried to cut his leg off.  It was a nice 6" long slice to the bone.  YIKES!!!  She had pictures, but you don't want to see that.  He got lots of stitches and she got her money refunded so she could go to the hospital.  Sometimes the excitement doesn't exactly come from Bingo.

Little did I know, it was only the beginning.  About 8:00 my phone started blowing up.  It was my neighbor saying my fire alarm was going off.  WHAT?????  I tried to call her, but she didn't answer.  Next thing I know, she says the alarm won't shut off ... it's SO annoying!  I'm in panic mode now.  IS IT MY HOUSE????  She wasn't sure.  GO OUTSIDE AND LOOK!!!

Then I think ... but you really can't hear a fire alarm outside ... it must be the main alarm, and I didn't set it.  So how could it be going off?  DO YOU SEE SMOKE?  No she says, but she finally went outside to find it wasn't MY alarm after all.  It was my OTHER neighbor's house.  The one that got flooded.  

BIG sign of relief!!  Turns out NO ONES house was on fire, but someone had set the alarm next door.  When the painter showed up later, he set it off.  Apparently there was lots of screaming and yelling after that!!!

As for Bingo itself ... there was one tussle over "you didn't give me my change", which I put the kibosh on when I asked for her receipt ... which she provided without thinking.  The money came out with it.  I can't believe they come up with so many different ways to deceive you.  

There was one slight altercation in the kitchen before everyone finally concentrated on the reason they were there ... to play bingo and lose their money.  The new fry cook in the kitchen (a normal person, not a real fry cook) couldn't get the food out fast enough.  He was a very nice guy, but a one-thing-at-a-time guy.  

I thought they were going to beat him up, so I volunteered to help him cook.  The Stepmother of the Castle Kitchen shooed me away ... they will just have to wait.  I thought there was going to be a riot, but the King happened to walk by and soothed the savage beasts.  He has the gift of gab.  He also has the power to kick them out, so cooler heads prevailed.

I'm a little worse for wear this morning, so another round of French toast is on the breakfast menu.  Then maybe I'll see if I can get at least ONE more item off my to-do list.