Message-ID: <Pine.NEB.4.64.0905092340160.29679@panix3.panix.com>
From: Alan Sondheim <sondheim@panix.com>
To: Cyb <cybermind@listserv.aol.com>, Wryting-L <WRYTING-L@listserv.wvu.edu>
Subject: My Father's 95th birthday and why I might not be up to par for a
while.
Date: Sat, 9 May 2009 23:43:49 -0400 (EDT)
My Father's 95th birthday and why I might not be up to par for a while. My father's birthday started out with Azure and myself taking a 20-year- old Accura in to get a tailpipe replaced and reset after I backed the car into a curb yesterday. I still have no proper eyeglasses and was nervous after difficulties with the family over my father - we're in Pennsylvania helping him, along with my nephew and his partner, since he had a pace- maker put in on April 20 when his heartbeat dropped to 38. Ok, we ate at Denny's waiting for the car, got the car, went back home, and I lay down to take a nap - we were returning to Brooklyn this afternoon. About ten minutes later I was wakened by Azure who said there was smoke in the house. we couldn't find the source. I went down into the basement and found a fire in one of the rooms - furniture burning, specifically beds. Azure and Amie got my father out of the house (which was decorated for his birthday) and onto a lawnchair in front. I screamed for water, ran upstairs and found some tonic which I threw on the fire - the flames, about two feet high - were too much for it. So Dan and Azure started bringing water down to me and in about twenty minutes to a half hour I had the fire out, dizzy from smoke which filled the house. I found a sink in the basement that made filling the pots we used a lot easier. The firemen arrived and I convinced them not to use their hoses - I was still pouring water on the fire. They didn't and we left the house. I returned to the house and met the firechief who told me someone had been smoking in the basement. No one smoked so we realized someone had broken in. After the firemen left we looked around, found no one, called the police and a locksmith. The police had no idea what happened and the locksmith installed a very heavy deadbolt on the basement door and left. Azure tried the deadbolt and it broke internally and the locksmith returned. The cat - Katski, my father's companion for nine years - had run out of the house and to this point hasn't returned. We looked all over for the cat. We locked up the house and opened everything to let the smoke out. Neighbors came over. Tonight a circuit breaker turned part of the house dark. We have no idea what set it off. We have had three ghost cat sightings in the house but no cat and nowhere to hide we haven't looked. My father is distraught. We got all the burned furniture out on the back terrace. Azure is distraught. We have to figure out what really caused the fire, who might have broken in, was it deliberate, we don't think so, we didn't even hear anyone in the house at all. We have to have an electric- ian come to give us some idea if the circuitry had anything to do with it. Other than the furniture we managed to save everything and clean the place up. It's odd to think I saved my father's life given our horrendous relationship over the years. I'm the damaged oldest child of three sib- lings. I negotiate as much as I can with my brother and sister, my brother negotiates with my sister, my sister talks to my father, my brother and I try to talk to my father. The house is now under lock and key and Azure and I keep going out looking for the cat. Sandy, I'll be on tomorrow; Foofwa, I'm going to try and get the grants done; Myk, please let me know what night i can call you. I have problems seeing which didn't affect the ukulele pieces since I really don't need vision for that. I'm neglecting Second Life for a bit. I apologize to everyone for being out of commission, I seem to live from crisis to crisis, should not be down here so soon after eye surgery for example. Please if you need a response from me, be a little patient. I can't see straight and tomorrow the problems we're sure will start all over again. We're going to return to Brooklyn on Monday if we can. The really sad things, the cat is gone, my father close to tears, and the house all decorated by my nephew and his girlfriend for a nice 95th birth- day party. He was getting better and better after the surgery (there were complications) but now is repeated a lot more, ever since the cat ran out of the house... Sat May 9 23:37:41 EDT 2009