An eventful week

Tuesday was supposed to be staff meeting. At about 2:00, when I was supposed to dismiss my students, My sixth sense picked up a kerfuffle in the hallway. I wondered out of class and into the computer lab. My sense of smell was assailed by the smell of smoke. "What is going on in here?" I asked. One of the assistants answered, "There was a fire in here. There was smoke coming from there." And she pointed to stains on the ceiling. Black stains where last year the ceiling leaked during the spring melt. As I was shaking my head in amazement at our crappy school, one of the other teachers entered the room. "We need to leave the school now!!" Well of course we do. There was smoke coming from out of our ceiling. All of those practice fire drills and we forget to talk about what you do when you actually see one. The answer: Pull the fire alarm.

Anyways I digress. The school was evacuated for the rest of the afternoon until the source of the fire could be determined. Apparently one of the wires was smoldering. One of the wires that is not water protected. The wiring that got wet last spring when our ceiling leaked. So do you think they are going to actually fix the problem this time so that no more fires occur?

There was some interesting images and thoughts that came out of this mini adventure. First was the Trout Lake "fire truck". No lights, no cute firemen, no training. Just a toothless local driving the MD water truck that is also used to deliver water to homes. It is a good thing that there was only smouldering because if there had been flames, the "fireman" would have used water. Not a good thing to do with an electrical problem (or so I am told). The store owner asked us why we didn't phone the MD and ask them to bring a big fan in order to fan the flames and actually let the fire do some damage. Well if the wiring is not fixed and this happens again, we know what to do.

Well enough of that. On to other events. I have a visitor this weekend. One of the teachers from last year is here visiting. Right now she is watching NASCAR. It is so good having her around this weekend as it forces me to be more active. Friday, we went ice skating on the creek with some of our students. It was so nice to lace up my skates for the first time this season and skate outside on natural ice with the snow sparkiling all around us. Having my friend here reminds me of why I love this place. Having her here confirms that once again we are making progress in the school and that we have wonderful staff this year. A great mid fall boost of spirits.