zzzzz.....

I am tired.

It is 3:30 in the am. I only managed to force myself to go to bed an hour or so ago, which means it wasn't until about a half hour ago that I was even on my way to beautiful somnia. So of course, that's when the damn fire alarms went off.

As far as I can tell, it was a false alarm, possibly caused by all the fog that we've been surrounded with, which in turn was caused by liquid rain encountering godawful hot asphalt. At least, one of my neighbors suggested that it was the fog. He seemed to know what he was talking about (actual quote, "It was probably the fog." My response: "gnnh."), so I'm not inclined to argue.

Here's how it went down:
Around 3 am, alarms go off and I drag myself out of bed, grab my keys, wallet, cell phone, umbrella and shoes, and amble down the three flights of stairs that stand between me and the outside. I know, I know; it's a lot of crap to grab when your life may be in imminent danger, but I've been through so many fire drills, I'm conditioned not to think that fire alarms mean imminent danger. Blame this one on the school systems.

At any rate, I stood outside for a little while looking at the building to see if there was any smoke, but if there was, it was cleverly hiding in all the damn fog. So, like many of my neighbors, I hopped into my car and tried to get some sleep. After ten or fifteen minutes of hearing the alarms, the fire trucks showed up, having made acceptable time. Not great, but they probably would have saved the building if it had actually had the common decency to be burning. And frankly, I don't know where they were coming from or how busy a night they were having or, for that matter, what a good time for getting to the scene of an emergency even is, so I can't really whine about this.

So the firepersons make their way through the building, and when they opt not to spray it down with huge amounts of water, I opt to go back to bed. On my way back into the building, I encountered a fireman, who told me it was okay to go upstairs. I responded by staring blankly at him, because it is half past three in the morning, and when he tells me again to go on upstairs, I get it, and go upstairs. Where I immediately try to go to bed, which doesn't work, so here I am, blogging away.

....

Crap. It is now 3:50, and the alarm just went off. Again. I'm going to find an all night coffee place, as coffee makes a good substitute for sleep.