Hello Ernie and all the guys at the club, We’ve had a little excitement here on my street. In fact, we’ve had it twice. About six months ago, the Landry family opened up a coin wash just down the block. For the most part, things have been going pretty well with people in and out all hours of the day, washing clothes in the fancy new computerized machines and big rugs or blankets in the nice oversized ones. The sign out front is one of the new digital ones with a sort of television screen that changes, and it’s a very attractive place. The name that keeps popping up on the screen is THE LANDRY FAMILY AUTOWASH. Well, the general public being what they often are, several have come from home with a blood alcohol content that should have kept them there, and thinking that their cars needed washing, they drove right in. Yup, right through the front doors. Luckily, no one was injured or killed either time. The big sign now says THE LANDRY LAUNDRY, and that seems to have cleared things up.
One of the guys from the Club here, Charles, had a story to tell last week. He’s a volunteer fireman, and just like the volunteers up your way, ours are “on the job” anytime, night or day, even when they are at work at their regular jobs. His radio started howling, and it seemed there was a fire - a house fire burning in his own neighborhood. He dropped what he was doing and headed for the door. About the time he got into his truck, the address of the fire came through, and he realized it was HIS OWN ADDRESS. His Dodge truck left two black lines in the parking lot and halfway down the street as he headed home at high speed. By the time he got to his house, the pump truck was all set up, and smoke was billowing into the sky from his backyard. His house was fine, but the treehouse out back was a total loss, and the tree will never be the same either. His young son and two friends had been corralled by the Assistant Chief. As it turned out, the boys had been watching the television show “Naked and Afraid” and figured they could make fire better than any of the people there. They were right. Luckily, they hadn’t been impressed with the whole “naked” part, and being young fellas, they aren’t afraid of anything except soap and water. The boys said, “We don’t know what happened. We just built a SMALL fire.” Charles said it was all okay; he didn’t like that particular tree anyway, and having a tree house was just one more roof to fix.
Like you, we’ve been going through a change of seasons. We’re finally cool enough that we can open the windows at night and not run the air conditioner. That’s been a blessing, and our electric bill is about half of what it was in August. We have three cats in the house, so we have to leave at least two windows up a little, or there’s pushing, shoving, and hissing for the best spot to sit and sniff the night air. We close the windows down when it gets warm outside, and the cats all retreat to their favorite sleeping spots for the rest of the day. Working night shifts wears them out. They still wake up to eat regular meals, though. The cats and I have that much in common, and personally, I feel a short nap coming on, so I’ll close this out. Say hello to all the guys for me and tell me when you get out on the ice.
Your friend, Gershom