weird, wild stuff

I have had a strange time lately. 

There was a huge factory fire in the town where my family lives – I drove in just in time for it last Friday.  At first I thought I was seeing a very low-hanging cloud, and then a tornado, but then (some miles away) I started to smell the smoke.

A landmark building destroyed, supposedly the work of teenagers, though people have their conspiracy theories about insurance money and blah blah blah.  Friday night, the entire town was a huge game of Telephone – the electricity is going to get turned off, the town is being evacuated, firefighters were inside when the building collapsed, there are dangerous tanks of nitrogen and oxygen and a whole floor of barrels of lacquer just waiting to explode, the air quality will be bad, and to top it all off, maybe a tornado could come!  In reality, no one died, though a few firefighters were injured, and while explosions didn’t happen, apparently the air quality is kind of bad because of all of the asbestos knocked loose by the destruction of the building.

I used to drive by that building every day on my way to work just down the street.  It was sad to see it on fire.

In the midst of all of the rescue vehicles racing up and down my sister’s street, my mom got a phone call that her brother Calvin was doing very poorly.  He had a brain aneurism when I was in college, and he was diagnosed with cancer (I want to say stomach) a few years ago.  He was cancer-free in January, but then they found it in his lungs and his spine, and now all of a sudden he’s confused and doesn’t know anyone… but apparently there’s no cancer in his brain.  Weird and sad. 

And then there’s Izaak’s leg – he started limping a few weeks ago and had to get an X-ray (I woke him up that morning by stroking his face with Floyd’s paws – and yes, Floyd lets me do these things).  The X-ray was inconclusive, so Izaak had to come to Buffalo yesterday to see an orthopedic doctor.  Now he has to get an MRI, but the doctor thought it was the cartilage in his knee.  Does that mean surgery?  Can you imagine being 10 years old and having to have surgery on your knee?  Right in time for summer vacation, no less.

Well, I did get to have lunch with him and Nicky and Billy and my mom, and they stopped and visited Uncle Calvin in the hospital on their way home.

Oh, and I got to have a sleepover with Kailyne last weekend!  It was so nice, not like sleeping with the boys – she didn’t kick me or headbutt me in her sleep or meld herself to my side so that I get all sweaty and can’t move.  And she woke up in such a great mood, and just settled down on my arm and watched cartoons while I got some more sleep.

Has anyone else been exhausted all spring?