Sunday, April 09, 2006

Burn, Baby, Burn!!

I learned one more thing about satin sheets last night:

5) You can actually die of electrocution from the static electricity when changing the sheets.

Today we bought some lumber and John put together the first raised bed for the new garden. In the meantime, the kids and I went around cutting down and trimming back all of last year's plants out front. We put all the brushy stuff in the old garden bed so we could burn it. When The Prawn first learned what we planned to do, she said, "Oh GOODY! I LOVE burning stuff!" And, well, who doesn't?


Slug, Mollusc and I took pics:



I think Mollusc's hair is actually blowing back from the hot air.



Ooooooh. Fire!



Smoke gets in your eyes. (and chocolate egg gets on your face)



One of the few times Gogo wasn't frantically running for more stuff to throw on.

A little of the fire threatened to escape the box, and though it was easily stamped out, doing so reminded me of the many times my dad would pack my sis and me into the VW bug and go roaring off to stamp out brush fires. I guess it wasn't uncommon for layfolk to act as the Volunteer Fire Department (oooh more Lemony Snicket!) as evidenced by the fire beating mops and instructions at this roadside pullout. That's my mom with the fire mop.


But I never got to use the mops. I don't think there were ever any around the fires we found. We just stomped them out. Ah good times. :-) I suppose it's only fair we chased fires, considering that after my dad launched his homemade, candle-powered hot air balloon, he could well have set fire to half the jungle, LOL!

Sadly, the smoke of our fire failed to bring any hot half-dressed firemen erroneously rushing to our aid. Alas. (I think I'm working an alas into every post these days. Kind of like the whole Blackadder "cunning plan" thing.)

On the way back into the house, I finally remembered to snap the pics of Flat Accident Guy on the snowblower to add to my collection.


I sure hope he remembered to shut it off when he went to get THAT hand out.



Not as exciting as most of the stickers, but another notch in Heavy Equipment's belt (or at least Flat Accident Guy's shoe.

And finally, mostly to bug Egan and Toby ;-) young Trillian. She's dreaming of Toby's Billy Idol cat picture.







18 comments:

Logophile said...

I am actually going to comment on previous posts too, but I thought I would just put it all here for convenience sake, I don't want to comment too often and distress anyone.
I do like satin sheets, but they are slippery and only good for a very specific temperature range, not too hot, not too cold. I love flannel sheets too and I ADORE my jersey cotton ones. Like sleeping on a nice big giant t-shirt. They are perfect for summer, not as hot but still have many of the positive aspects of flannel. Love the chocolate peanut butter cookies, that is genius right there, sister. And... Fire, heh heh heh, they have a fire.
My older son LOVES Lemony Snicket, we went to get the next book in the series on Friday and the library was already closed, you'd have thought I shot his best friend and danced on the corpse from the look on his face.
For some fun, and to just take a good thing too far, throw in a nice "Alas and alack" every once in a while.
Nice HNT bruise too.
Ok, I think I am caught up.
Is this too long?

Jay said...

Ohmigod, that amputating sign is the worst!

Just this weekend Jason said to me "I thought every kid burned stuff."

Faltenin said...

On photo 2, it actually looks like there's a baby Alien hand coming out of a stomach there... LOL

C said...

Logo™ - You crack me up, girl! Be as verbose as you like. :-) I'm dying over the "shot his best friend and danced on the corpse" LOL! Poor boy! I have yet to read #12. I had so many books going when I started it that I never got back to it. However, they're such quick reads, I should just sit down and finish it off.

Jay - don't you love how it's kind of torn off instead of being a nice, clean cut? ;-) Do I want to know how you and Jason got on that subject? Is there smoke at your blog?

Fal - LOL! OMG poor Slug! She seems happy enough, though. She's a tough kid. ;-)

egan said...

No you didn't. First of all, yet another cat picture? And then you burn stuff? Are you trying to annoy me? There had to be a better way to discard that stuff than burning them right? Mother Earth is crying. Earth Day is April 22nd. You can return the favor then.

C said...

I so did! But I am returning it into the soil. The ashes will get dug back into the garden, or, if there's more than I need for that bed, they'll be added to the compost heap. What better way to dispose of plants? (without the seeds sprouting and taking over the compost bin) Mother Earth is patting me on the back, LOL! :-)

You must enlighten me on the cat thing. I wish Blogger hadn't eaten your comment before I could see it.

egan said...

Why would you have to burn them though? The fire is horrible for the environment. Just throw them in a compost bin. Oh well. Mother Earth is crying.

Let's agree not to talk about cute kittens.

jlmack said...

Flat accident guy's best work is in Japan. Especially elevators. I didn't think it was possible for a faceless human shape to display overwrought emotion, but there you have it. I will try to find you some. My favourite is him banging against the walls of an elevator that is stuck in a fire.
Ah... good times.

C said...

Egan - mostly so the seeds don't sprout in there and take over my garden. I already have a mint "issue." :-/ Poor Mother Earth. But she's been known to start a fire or two herself. ;-)

No kittens. Awwwww. :-( *giggle*

Janice- LOL! I would love to see those!! Poor Flat Accident Guy!

egan said...

We will never speak of this burning incident again.

tshsmom said...

We've got a bunch of cut brush stacked up where our garage will be built. We're waiting for our yard to green-up before we burn it.

Egan, don't mess with us pyromaniacs! ;)
BTW, it's been scientifically proven that the decaying process produces the same amount of gaseous byproducts as burning. Decaying just does it over a longer period of time.

egan said...

Oh really? hmmm, I don't have the energy to debate this today.

Logophile said...

Wow, just seeing Egan's reaction to cute kitties and fire makes me want to go get some cats and set fire to them, oh wait,
no...
maybe not.

OK, warning signs, there are these signs of flat accident guy getting bipped in the head by a side view mirror, with the little impact lines and everything. They were on a bridge here in WA state first time I saw them I almost drive off the bridge I laughing so hard.

Toby said...

"I hope I'm composted. Fire is good, but I want my carbon to slowly find its way." - Lucy

C said...

I love fire. What is it about fire? And really, what IS fire? It's not a solid, liquid, gas or plasma. Is it visible energy? I guess it's in the same category as light, eh?

Logo, you are evil, LOL! And I really want to see those bridge signs!

Toby - what's that from? I think I'd rather be burned on a pyre. After death, obviously.

Toby said...

I made it up. Lucy is the oldest remains found in Africa, hence her carbon, or most of it anyway, very slowly returned to the earth.

My avatar is Lucy.

egan said...

Fire is fascinating, it is. But also not so good for the environment. I'm done talking about that though. I see there are more kitty pictures.

C said...

Toby, believe it or not THAT Lucy actually crossed my mind, but I had NO CLUE that she was the one in your avatar. She's actually looking quite well for one so ancient. . .

Egan - are you loving the kitty pictures? Embrace your feminine side and openly admit your love for the kitties. Only a manly man can do so. ;-)