Not again!

Remember 6 months ago when the "Time with God" set (and Cathy's house) flooded? We had to put off taping a few months while we re-located to a room that Cathy's church let us set up in.

Well, this morning I made my way to Gainesville and got there right at 9:10. While we were "scheduled" to meet at 9:00, me getting there ten minutes late is fine: Cathy has been at least 15 minutes late each day for the last few months. When I get there, though, she is already there, and has had a heroic morning.

She got there early for once (8:45) and decided to have everything set up for me so when I got there we could just start taping. So she started turning on the lights, a job that I normally do. As she turned on the last light (a 500w bulb on a light stand) it popped (like a few have done in the past), so she first unplugged it. About that time, she thought "I am surprised that it didn't catch on fire."

Now let me stop here. I will admit that I claim responsibility for this. In the last few months I have done many stupid things in order to cut costs. For example, I was using $2 extension cords (with no grounding wire) instead of surge protectors. Instead of buying $20 worth of ND filters (sheets of plastic to put on the light to cut down the brightness) I had clothes pinned up large sheets of paper to cut the light. Needless to say, I was putting money in front of safety.

So, as I was saying, Cathy thought "I am surprised that it didn't catch on fire," at which point she looked up and saw that the sheets of paper were indeed on fire. She grabbed them, and just like in cartoons, her first instinct was to blow on them to put them out. And like in the cartoons, this only fanned the flames. So she threw it on the ground, grabbed the quilt that we use as a table cloth, and smothered the fire. Then, for good measure, she poured her $4 latte on it (running early, she wanted to treat herself to something better than a $1 cup at Braums, her usual stop, so she went across the street to Starbucks).

The good news is that no one and no thing was hurt, and the sprinklers didn't go off.

The bad news is that she now has to pay for the cleanup, and the church smells like smoke (personally, I like the smell, but I am sure that most people won't).

As she said, maybe this was God's way of getting our attention on safety so that something bigger didn't happen later (like at her new house which is being remodeled right now). But what I can tell you is that I feel like an idiot for not listening to my professors when they talk about safety. I sure won't do that again!

Matthew