The other night I heard a beeping coming from outside my room and went to investigate, it was loud and annoying.

I thought it was what looked like a smoke detector which turned out to be a heat-rise alarm, not smoke. I couldn't find a way to turn it off, but when I unscrewed it I heard a second beeping coming from the lobby where the fire monitoring stuff is located. I went back and screwed in the other one and that one turned off. I called the monitor company and she said that there had been a continuity break but it was fine now.

So I went back to look at it again and from down the hall I heard a faint cry. I saw my friend Jenny clutching her door jamb to stand up. As I approached I saw she looked terrible, all green and clammy. She could barely speak. I helped her back into her room and sat her down, opened window, turned on fan and got her water.

Her Carbon Monoxide alarm had been going off but she kept turning it off thinking it was broken. Eventually she was passing out on her bed. She did get up and opened her door, which is when I saw her.

I called our landlord who had just gone on vacation to Palm Springs that day. He still answered his phone at 2:30 am! He owns a lot of buildings and must be reachable at any time, and he is. I told him how bad Jenny felt and looked and he told me to call an ambulance right away, and I did.

There's a ton more details I could go into, but suffice it to say the fire department showed up and her room was at 170 ppm, when over a 100 is dangerous. I told them that the boiler room was directly below hers, and had been "worked on" in the last few days. We got the landlord's adult daughter to come down to open the boiler room up. They checked the CO ppm at the door and it was 650! One of them told me that 1200 was a lethal dose with one breath. They put on oxygen tanks and shut off the boiler.

Jenny was taken to the hospital to clear the CO out, and was there overnight. She's fine now. She had told the management about the smells she had to deal with, toxic stuff. It's an old building.

I will believe my CO monitor from now on!

Oh, the original beeping sound I heard came from the woman across the hall's room, she was not home. We went in and turned it off. I slept.

Close shave.

I liked the ending. Hopefully, everyone ele learned a lesson that day.

Turns out the fan that cleared the boiler room was broken.

Jenny is fine, but pretty pissed off. She is having trouble sleeping in her room, even though the boiler isn't on yet. She really got traumatized by the whole thing. I hope she doesn't move out, I like her.

Wow! Glad you and Jenny are OK. And that you are able to sleep. Hopefully, Jenny will feel better about it over time and won't move out.

My room measured a 12 on the ppm. Her's was 170 after it had been aired out a bit! The guy next door to her was at 80, but he didn't have a problem with it.

So, my sleep is usually interrupted by the street noise, not being gassed to death. I live next to King County International Airport (Boeing Field) in South Seattle so I am under the landing path (better than the take off side!). There's an onramp to I5 half a block away. There are a million dumpsters and they all get picked up on different days! We used to have a motorcycle clubhouse down the street and those guys had modified Harleys, would coast around the corner and GUN IT under my window so they could get to 100 before stopping at the stop sign. Oh yes, the train yards and the freeway are also factors. The main train line through Seattle is on the other side of my building. Not as noisy as motorcycles, though.

I had a pinball arcade directly below my window, but that had to stop, so now it's a restaurant (same guy!) with tables under my window full of laughing, screaming, smoking morons. Better then the ten years of the Mix, a music venue that would let just about any bad metal act play. They finally went under, but that's when the pinball arcade next door got going! Across the street construction is going on for a new distillery/meeting space/god knows what where the pizza place used to be.

So many places went out of business that there are a lot of open spots and they are getting built-out for all kinds of stuff, mostly food/drink related since this part of town has no other way to make money, being tiny. It's a spot people travel to eat and drink in, or was. I'll write more about this part of town (Georgetown) in a later post.

I set up my first vaccination shot for tomorrow, Pfizer brand. Before too long we'll be somewhat freer than we are now.

That was a breeze. I hope the second one is as easy to bear.

Last Edited : Saturday, 13 March 2021 - 19:01

I'm supposed to get my guvmint relief in my account tonight or tomorrow. I'm gonna buy a car and a boat and a computer and a Les Paul, and of course, the requisite hookers and cocaine. This is every day, right? What? Just once?

OK, I'm getting some groceries and a bag of weed.

I am not sure I am even getting mine. I believe my ex-wife will hold it hostage until she turns me into a Norwood 3.

Dang! Ex's are murder!

I got my second Pfizer vaccine shot today. So far, nothing much to report other than an odd slight dislocation of reality! I expect tomorrow will be the tougher day.
(As it turns out, last night was slightly weird, but today I've been fine.)

I finally got a webcam! Took me long enough. Worked right out of the box, too, I chatted with my brother who lives in Canada, free, better sound than our phones! Used Facebook messenger to connect.

Last Edited : Sunday, 4 April 2021 - 21:11

Nothin' much to report...

I just had my first encounter with a Covid and vaccine denier. I was standing in line behind a guy about my age (66) at Walgreen's and I asked if he had been vaccinated, expecting something along the lines of "Yes! Thank goodness!" but what I got was "Hell no, I haven't been vaccinated!" And then a long screed about mrna and how I am now a GMO. I mentioned that almost no one had died from the flu last year and he just derided me. He turned away in disgust when I didn't just go along with his anti-science rantings.
I'm just guessing, but I'd bet money he's a Trump cultist and has a ton of semi-auto weapons, too. Seemed the type.

Its real stuff ya know! These people do not just exist on TV. That is what makes em dangerous, folks!

I've been collecting Sparkler Comics from the late 40's off of eBay. They're relatively cheap for late golden age stuff. It's reprints from United Features Syndicate newspaper strips. Includes Nancy and Sluggo, The Katzenjammer Kids, Tarzan by Burne Hogarth, Lil' Abner, and more.

The character of the Sparkler was gone by the time these issues came out. I've been just getting Nancy and Sluggo covers.

This seems...unfamiliar to me.

Things have sure slowed down from last year's rush! It was something more awful every day, it seemed, and now things are beginning to turn around. I am SO glad trump is out of office!

That seems to be the consensus: ugly orange man bad, him out of office good.

I sure learned how to make a good pizza over the last year!

A nice sunny day with people walking on the street... it seems kind of weird! That whole year of my neighborhood being nearly deserted was eerie, but quiet.

Women are cute!

I was hanging out in the record store downstairs today, when a very tall man walked in. He was interested is selling his records.

After he left I mentioned to Martin, the store owner, that the man was a giant. He said "Seven feet tall!" It turns out the man had been on the Supersonics. He wasn't just tall, he was BIG, too!

Turns out he was 7'2" when he played for the Sonics!

Last Edited : Sunday, 16 May 2021 - 16:11