Too Much CSI ?

Yesterday when I talked to Laura, she told me they were having furnace problems at Todd's. They weren't sure if it was working or not, but the repair man was coming today to take a look at it and last night they might not have any heat. So I go to bed looking forward to a restful night's sleep and I hope it won't be too cold a night for them.

At 3:30am I wake up, and a thought floats past my mind: Furnace not working properly, older home, sleeping people - Carbon Monoxide!!!

I am instantly wide awake, and jump out of bed! What should I do? Call Laura to see if everything is OK? No, I'm being silly, I'll just wake everyone up, but working in a medical laboratory, I know we have cases at least 2 - 3 times a year of Carbon Monoxide poisoning, I do the testing!

Do they have a Carbon Monoxide detector? I don't know? I'll call. I know she keeps her phone on all night. She should hear the call. What if she doesn't answer? Do I assume she didn't hear the phone? Do I panic that she is unconscious? I envision people in bed, innocently breathing, sucking in toxic fumes! If she doesn't answer the first call, I'll leave a message, then call back right away, thinking that the first call might wake her up enough to hear the second call. Sully, is looking at me like, what's up? We are both on high alert! Why didn't I think about asking her if they had a detector when she told me? Then I wouldn't be sitting here in the middle of the night discussing my plan with the dog!

He says, Go Ahead, Call. So I do, 3 rings later she answers, Hello? I'ts me, I say, everything is OK. I got thinking about the furnace and Carbon Monoxide, and was worried and couldn't sleep. Are you OK? Yes, we're fine, she says. Good, I respond, then go back to sleep and I'll talk to you tomorrow. Bye.

Sully and I relax, and head back to bed. She's going to kill me tomorrow, I think, but it's going to make a great Blog entry!

Passionate Tribute to... Green

Driving to work today and the last week has been bleak! The sky is gray, there was rain or fog, and nothing but brown landscape. This is the time of year I dread.

Up until Christmas, the darkness of the short daylight has been broken by cheerful Christmas lights on many homes, but now that Christmas is over, the lights are off or down. All is dormant. Snow is preferrable as it coveres the brown and reflects light, creating more brightness, but it is short lived, as it too eventually becomes brown and messy.

I have decided long ago that I could never live in a place without green trees. It is more than a desire, I must have a quantity of green in my view! Grass is good, but leaves are better. I enjoy watching them develop from small buds, to full sized leaves, through subtle shades of color, until they change color and drop. I watch for the last few leaves hanging on to the stems for dear life until they finally succumb and fall.

When I traveled to the West, I expected to see beautiful landscape, but I doubted I could ever live there because of the lack of leafy trees, thus the lack of green. I was pleasantly surprised to realize that although there may be few leafy green trees as I know them, there is no lack of green in the West. In most places the red ground is dotted with clumps of green shrubs and foliage. Put in the background the strickingly blue sky, and you have an amazing balance of color and the blue and green boldly stand out. I wish I could name some of the bush varieties, if I lived there I would learn them.

So, now I wait and struggle through this color void, until the first hints of Spring. I'll watch carefully the stems for subtle changes in color as a signal leaves are forming, some trees have buds that start to swell as the temperature climbs, all of which are signs, green is returning. Until then I can visit my florist and smell the freshness of flowers and enjoy their leaves and stems. Small compensation compared to the great outdoors, but it's all that available here. Think GREEN!