Wasting time with Jet

I woke up this morning and saw the sun, and it was beautiful!...wow, that sounds like one of those cotton pickin' slave songs from way back when. But it's true! After 8 straight days of rain in the city, we've finally gotten a break in the weather. Too bad I have been condemded to this high-rise prison of a decaying apartment complex!

Allow me to explain...

Over the last week (In the midist of all this rain...) there have been two devestating electrical fires at various areas of this double-digit storied complex. On two occasions our building was surrounded by at least six fire engines all around the block. The apartment walls are fire-proof, so there's no real threat, but there's the inconvience of loss electricty, lights, elevators, etc, etc...and while backup generators kept most of the apartments from being in the dark, the building hallways and elevators are another story. To leave the building, you need a flashlight and the patience to walk up and down flights of stairs.

Now, I live on a low number floor, but for someone living on...say the 16th floor or higher, they're screwed. Who wants to climb 16 flights of stairs?!?!? Hell, going down 32 flights a few weeks ago nearly killed me at the UN, and that's going DOWN, could you imagine going UP!?!?!? NO WAY!!! SO, with no job or place to go, I stayed put while the buliding went through emergency repairs.

Now, our particular building complex is plagued with enough problems. Built on top of a highway that goes underneath us, the beams that have been holding us up have been getting weak over the last 25 years, and as an outstanding tall building, sometimes I fear a 9/11 copycat, BUT two electrical fires in one week is too much to be a coinincidence. Something evil is afoot...

MOM being the panicy type is now worried about how to get out in the event of a fire. The second fire was at 5am friday morning and lets just say my response time was little slow. That morning she was ready to leave the apartment in a panic, and by the time I stirred awake and got dressed we were instructed by the fire department to stay out of the hallway and INSIDE the house!

I guess the threat of fire doesn't scare me much, I know these buildings are made to contain fires and as long as your circuit breakers are cool, nothing should happen.

Anyway, cooped up in the house I decided to hit the chatroom scene with a new network that LLF put me on to, PalTalk. I signed up and checked out the chat rooms and they're pretty cool. There's even webcam and voice options for a subscription fee, but I don't think I'm ready for that.

Looks like I got another reason to stay up all night, it's wonder I get any sleep at all...