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Monday, March 4, 2013

Quitting Cigars

... at least for a month or so.

I have taken to smoking an Onyx Reserve late in the afternoon in front of the apartment, comfortably tucked in behind the butterfly garden. It was very hot today and the shade across the garden looked cool and appealing. It is extremely dry here (20% humidity) and windy today, so I very carefully put the cigar out, laid it on the patio paving, and took my book (Kindle) and a beer across to the shade.
Before
Now my memory gets a little fuzzy - things started happening pretty fast. Someone yelled "Fire!", or I saw the flame - I don't know for certain. Either way, I thought ......."Shit!" I made a run past the fire into our apartment, grabbed the big drinking water jug, and shifted into firefighter mode. I sloshed water on the fire which was a scary, crackling high blaze by then. I was immediately out of water, but the commotion had attracted a couple of other local firefighters who manned garden hoses and eventually we got the blaze extinguished, though only after wiping out a 4' x 6' piece of the butterfly garden. We had attracted quite a crowd and it was a little frightening; if we hadn't gotten on it in a heartbeat, the whole damned complex could have gone up. And I would have been the guy who did it. 

I feel stupid, careless, scorched, humiliated and damned thankful. And in spite of all this, Keith, our gracious innkeeper, is still talking to me. I can't imagine why.

9 comments:

Julie said...

But you dealt with it and you and everyone else are safe. Plants are replaceable, you aren't.

Johann Rissik said...

That was close, but you didn't burn the place down. Phew.
Glad it all ended well!

George A said...

All's well that ends well. You can spend the cigar money on bike parts.

Gunnar Berg said...

Addendum: Keith apparently decided there was another accident waiting to happen and he had another bunch of bushes torn out.

Silk Hope said...

Knucklehead.

Gunnar Berg said...

Yep. Knucklehead.

Margadant said...

A lesson learned is no reason to foreswear a fine cigar.

Gunnar Berg said...

I can wait.

Johann Rissik said...

This should get your mind off those revolting cigars ;)
http://www.bicycle-artform.org/