Fun times

Interesting few months to say the least.  Concentrating on the big 3 pre apocalypse demons and how to deal with emergencies of police, fire and ambulance.  Always an art form trying to configure the house to sit each emergency.  Until recently it was a tossup between police and ambulance…. in keeping with the big 3… Home invasion, heart attack and house fire.  I’ve dealt with semis of all 3… near misses shall we say.  Had issues with miscreants early on in the year… they threatened me at my door… I called the police… same old bullshit… coupled with strict self defence laws common in western countries excl the US meant that the best option is to keep idiots OUT… hence the barricades I put up every night.  Ok so number one sorted… for the next 8 months it really was a tossup as to whether I risk a home invasion or imprison myself hoping that I won’t need ambulance for a medical emergency incl my number one pet hate… Heart Attack… now as I said I’ve had semis of all 3 nasties on my list… including what I term semi heart attacks.  Im referring to panic attacks… which Ive had my fair share… several making me reach for the phone.  Now Panic attacks have got nothing to do with the heart but are triggered by the body fight or flight response… however the symptoms can mimic that of a heart attack and as a result many a false alarm has occurred.  

Yep so the small chance of a legit medical event happening couple with the more likely chance of a home invasion mean that the barricades stayed up…. Until early October when a new player entered the fray.

Whilst trying to get some sleep on a Wednesday night I heard a dripping sound… you know when your gutters flood and you get that smacking sound of water hitting the ground.  Now I have a leaky hot water cylinder which drips from the roof… sometimes I turn the mains water off so I can give the gutters a rest by letting it drip into the bathtub. I had this setup this particular night… but damn it was loud. There were lots of banging sounds too. Then I heard cries of anguish from my neighbour.  I thought the banging sounds were from ppl trying to get into his front door so I sorta thought about grabbing my machete…. Then he yelled out that his house was on fire… and I nearly pissed my pants.  Our houses are all connected… 4 of us.  I looked out the back and could see the glow and half his balcony was ablaze… flames prob bout 10 metres from where I was.  this explained the loud “dripping sound”…. It was flames crackling.  Didn’t know where else it was… but knew I had to get out so put some pants on… well I had pants on but they were “shundies”… ie running shorts… nuff said… so on went a pair of gym shorts over the top… hoodie was already on… you know… priorities… I wanna look presentable  if I’m gonna be killed in a fire.  Anyway removed the barricade and went out the front door… everyone else was in the courtyard… someone on the phone to the fire brigade…. Who were already coming down the driveway.  You could see the flames coming up from behind his house…. The smoke alarms were going in their place… smoke started drifting out their front door… and not long after that it started coming out of mine.  Once the fire was out they wanted to check my roof to see if it had spread to mine… I went in the check if there was a way into the roof… well until I was met by a wall of BLACK smoke and advised not to go in… advice taken… body already knew not to breath that lot in.  Anyway they opened all the windows and once the fire was out and the house was ventilated using fans we go the all clear to go back in… apart from number 7 which was unsafe… they found other accomodation.  this of course totally changed my attitude to things… lots of junk I had hoarded went out into the recycling bin and other bits heading to the scrap metal yard.  I tell ya I’ve never slept with my doors and windows open but that night I did.  The barricades weren’t used for about 4 weeks… when early last month I heard very loud banging on the door and then my front window.  Fearing another fire I answered only to find out it was a neighbour who wanted a pen.  I didn’t have one on me but thought it was weird that he wanted a pen at midnight… later on id figure out why he wanted the pen…. Tipping the balance back towards home invasion prep…. I now sleep in the back room… which I can exit in a hurry in event of fire… that way front can still be fortified… but still needs a plan for medical emergencies…. At the mo thats heavily prevention based but another option was to get friends to move in… which may still occur. Aston and Nancy may still move in, friends are the best defence for medical emergencies.  As for the neighbour in question.  i first saw him when chatting to the number 7 neighbours (the ones affected by the fire).  The in the next few weeks he started knocking on my door asking for smokes etc etc… he was surprised to hear I don’t do anything like that (my vice is food).  Then came the very loud banging a month ago which changed my attitude more towards what it had been before the fire.  That said apparently he’s meant to be moving out… good… the best way to get on my bad side is purposely bang on my door at midnight when I’m sleeping.  At da mo 3 of the flats are up for rent.  Number 1 (which my friend owns), number 3 (where the dodgy neighbour lives/lived) and soon number 7 will be up for rent. Now I’m hoping that Aston and Nancy move into one of those places.  Caleb too has expressed interest.  Would be cool if ppl I knew moved into the courtyard.