On Sunday, Autumn, Kristen and I went shopping for a cat. In the mall, on our way to the pet shop, we stopped at one of those random carts in the middle of the giant mall hall that sells random crap. This one in particular was selling board games, so we decided to investigate. I found a Beatles version of monopoly and I picked it up to show Kristen because I remembered she likes the Beatles since I'm so observant. So while I was holding it up saying, "Hey Kristen, check this out", a rude little 16 year old girl stepped between us and said, "Oh no, she can't get that, because I wanted that for Christmas."
This made me angry, so I said in as deep a voice I could, "well, do you want ME to get it for you for Christmas? Why don't you give me your address and phone number so I can get it for you?" Of course, she was taken aback, didn't say anything and slowly side-stepped away from me. I looked away just in time to see Autumn and Kristen disappear around the corner in embarrassment.
Did you ever have one of those moments where the gravity of a situation didn't quite hit you until 30 seconds later?
I have those all the time. A little while ago, I was driving while I had the radio on. One of the commercials had a police report about a suspect at large. The broadcast went something like:
"Police are still on the lookout for a porn star being charged with attempted man slaughter. Reports state that she tested positive for aids and went to work the following day."
The gravity hadn't hit me yet. "now why exactly are the police after her?" I thought. "What would be so bad about a porn star going into work who has............oooooohhhhhhhhhh."
So sometime in June I was doing my laundry. I live in an apartment complex, so I have to walk to a shed next to the building to use the washing machine. While I was taking my wet clothes out of the washer, I started to heard a little thud/boom. I peaked my head up from what I was doing and shook my head, thinking it was nothing. So after a few seconds I started hearing some grunting. Again, I thought it was someone just being stupid. After another few seconds I heard someone cry "help, help." So I quickly darted to the door to see what was the matter. Outside, on the grass was my landlord. His pants were definitely on fire.
Apparently, he had been working on the gas line and it exploded and instead of stop, dropping and rolling, he was trying to take his carhart overalls off by himself. I dashed over to him and helped him shuffle his pants off. It took me only about five seconds to help him with his burning clothes, but when you are dealing with fire that close to your skin, every second is an eternity.
Now, his reaction and my reaction after the fact were pretty different. He was in a little bit of calm shock. Almost like a cartoon character, he was calmly walking about in his underwear with smoke coming out of his beard and hair which were slightly singed. I was still trying to put out the fire because although he was ok, his pant were still burning on the lawn and I was darting back and forth trying to put out the fire. Apparently, pants fires are really difficult to put out because I put three of my wet towels from the washing machine over it, but the pants kept burning through, but I could find the fire extinguisher. After another neighbor came with his fire extinguisher I drew a cold bath to run cold water on his legs and tried to call an ambulence, but he refused both and called his wife to pick him up. So, his wife came over and took him to the hospital. So, after she took him, I decided not to let that cold bath go to waste. I soaked my hands in the ice cold water because touching flaming pants for a few seconds did this to my hands:
It doesn't look too bad, but it hurt like hell the first day. That was just a few seconds of touching fire with bare hands. I don't want to think of how my landlord felt with the fire at his ankles for a minute or more. What I thought were second degree burns on his ankles turned out to be borderline third degree burns. They didn't look gruesome or anything, but he did need skin graphs over the next few weeks. He still has bandages on his ankles, and can't do certain physical jobs around the apartment complex, but he's ok. My hands have since healed. I'm starting to get feeling back in that area on my left palm where that big blister was. But it was definitely an interesting day to say the least.
