Adventures in MD

[fbhjr]

We got to our friend Al’s house just after midnight. It’s a 6 hour drive, so we were both fairly tired.
He had made up the fold out bed in the basement for us. As his basement gets cold, he had started the pellet stove to warm up the place.

Having munched a bunch of chocolate coffee beans in the car, I didn’t fall asleep right away.
Instead, I lay there thinking:
“This stove is burning stuff right at the foot of our bed. We’re on the bottom floor of this place. CO2 from burning sinks. I’ve heard on the news that folks die from suffocation in cases like this...”
So, after pondering that for a bit, I decided to start the ceiling fan just to sleep better, not eternally.
My wife, who had been able to sleep, asked what I was doing and I told her I just wanted the fan on.
I lay back down on the bed.
Soon after there was a loud bang that had us both awake.
I turned the light back on. Ben’s birthday balloon had somehow drifted into the fan over our heads and exploded.
I lay back down, my wife fell asleep.
As I tried to fall asleep, there was a flash of orange flickering light from down near my feet.
My feet extended past the end of the bed. They were cold. So, I had tried to wrap them in the blanket as they hung past the end of the bed.
My first thought was I had accidently let the blanket hang down onto the pellet stove and set it on fire.
It was very bright. The whole room was filled with flickering orange light.
I sat up and looked. My feet were not on fire. The pellet stove had a glass front. When a new pellet falls into the stove, it flares up and the light fills the room.
“If there is enough oxygen to burn that bright,” I said to myself. “There is more than enough for us to breath.”
I fell asleep.

The next morning, we had to deal with the horrible gnome infestation in their garden.


It was clear that these gnomes had been partying all night.




They had a designated driver to take them home, but he didn’t seem up to the task.


The kids were very excited about the party and very willing to get into the act:




Al had that “I’ve tried to put together a big party for my son’s birthday and am now surrounded by more than a dozen kids” look:


But, Constance looked happy about it.


The kids seemed to like the party, but were very sad that we didn’t stay over another night with them. And, we stole their grandmother.
She needed to be back in New York City today, so we gave her a ride back.
Their family is very much of a “we will deal with whatever happens” way of looking at things. For my wife and I, who like a bit of planning, this can be confusing.
For instance, when we left we were told by Constance “Once you get into New York, my mother will know how to get you to where she needs to be dropped off.”
In the car, I asked her.
“New York city,” she said.
“Yes, but where?” I asked.
“I’ll know it when I see it,” she said.
Three hours later, we got to NYC.
“Where should I go?” I asked her.
“If you see a subway, let me know,” she said. “That’s probably what I’m after.”
“You don’t know what exit?” I asked.
“No,” she said. “It’s been 10 years since anyone dropped me off here. I know it’s around here somewhere.”
We saw a train above the road at one exit, so we got here to one of the stations. She thanked us and got out in a neighborhood I’d think twice about walking through. But, she’s a New Yorker. She didn’t have a problem with it.

On the ride up to the city, she had told me about when she slept in the basement.
“I was asleep there and there was this bright orange light that filled the room,” she said. “I got up thinking the room was on fire and I’d have to put it out.”
“I know just what that’s like,” I said.

The rest of the drive home my wife and I kept singing “my feet, my feet, my feet are on fire...”