Day 70: Christmas safety tips

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 70: Christmas safety tips

It’s the season to be jolly, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be careful. By paying attention and as such preventing hazards with Christmas trees and decorations, you might save yourself a rush visit to the hospital or veterinary clinic during the celebrations.

Candles

Candles are perfect to create atmosphere and a sweet aroma, but they are also huge fire hazards. To avoid accidents keep lighted candles away from the Christmas tree or decorative tree branches.  Place candles in a spacious area, on a flat hard surface in non-flammable candle holders.

Open Fire

Before making use of the fireplace, check the flue.  Checking the flue should be done annually to prevent chimney fires. Before lighting a fire be sure that all flammable materials such as wrapping paper, cardboard boxes, tinsel and chemicals are well away from the fireplace. To keep children and pets safe it is recommended to make use of a fireplace screen.  

Tree

Place the Christmas tree out of harm’s way. Preferably in a corner where it can’t be knocked down by children 

or pets. Be sure that the tree has a sturdy base so that it doesn’t fall over. If you have a real tree, keep it watered. Prep your tree by cutting or drilling a hole into the trunk, this will make for easy water absorption. Do not place your tree near a fireplace.

Christmas lights

Christmas lights should be checked before placing in the tree. The wire should not be frayed and no wires should be exposed. Sockets should be in perfect condition. If you see any damage, throw the lights out. Indoor lights should never be used outdoors and neither should outdoor lights be used indoors. Use a sturdy stepladder or chair to place the lights in the tree.

Tree Decorations  

If you have small children or pets, give preference to plastic decorations over glass ones. Accidents happen and it’s easy to miss a fragment of glass from a broken Christmas ball on the floor or carpet.  Should a child running barefoot or a pet step into such a fragment this will require a trip to the doctor or vet.
Give preference to pearls or a satin ribbon over tinsel to decorate the tree. In your absence, a pet may get curious about the shiny object, chew on it and choke.

Accidents happen all the time and bitter tears are shed afterward while people exclaim ‘If only I’d know’.  Don’t become one of them.  Think about what can happen and act responsibly.

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Day 47: Cats and their quirks

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 47: Cats and their quirks

Today is one of those rare days that I have nothing to do. No articles to write, no emails to answer, no research to do, and the prompt I’m supposed to write about doesn’t appeal to me. So, I’ll do what I always do when I’m short on inspiration … I write about my cat family, you could call them my four muses.

Right this moment, the fire alarm is being tested in my condo building. A series of sharp peep, peep, peep, sounds amounting to several decibels fit to pierce an eardrum.

While this is merely annoying for me, my cats are terrified of this noise. Charlotte is hiding under the duvet of my bed, Mickey is under the bed, Holly is more annoyed than scared that she can’t go to sleep, and Gabriel … well, Gabriel is Gabriel, he couldn’t care less. As far as Gabe is concerned, the fire alarm could be accompanied by an earthquake and a tornado and he wouldn’t care. As long as he has his basket it’s alright with him.

On the subject of sleeping … last night I came close to waking up Dieter. He was snoring again. Before I go any further, let me explain.

There was a time that Dieter snored every night, and by snoring, I mean SNORING. Several times a night, I had to get out of bed to go and wake him up because even with the door of his bedroom closed, the noise came through the walls to the point that it woke me out of a sound sleep.

He tried nose strips, I tried earplugs … nothing helped. Then I read that snoring is often caused by dry air in the bedroom. When I mentioned this to Dieter, he went and bought a humidifier. And low and behold, it worked. From day one, no more snoring. So, from then on, night after night Dieter switched on his humidifier and we were both able to get a good night sleep.

Until last night that is. Shortly after he’d gone to bed, I heard snoring. This surprised me because all these months he’d been so quiet. Did he perhaps forget to switch on his humidifier?

I was about to get up when I noticed that the snoring noise didn’t come from Dieter’s bedroom but from the armchair in the living room. Upon closer inspection, it wasn’t Dieter who was snoring, it was Charlotte. Yes, believe it or not, Charlottes' snores resembled a chainsaw!

When I mentioned this to Dieter he nodded in agreement. He knows all too well that Charlotte snores. When she sleeps with him on the foot end of his bed, he frequently has to give her a nudge when her snoring gets too loud.

As for Mickey … Mick is a fairly relaxed cat. He's clearly tired today, but he hasn’t forgotten yesterday’s drama, so he’s a little hesitant about putting his head down. 

That leaves Holly … Holly’s pose says it all. As far as she’s concerned, yesterday's fire alarm testing technicians can kiss her butt.

 www.connymanero.weebly.com

Toronto thunder storm

Just the other day, a friend and I were talking about thunderstorms. She loves them, I’m not keen on them. I don’t mind a gentle rolling thunder, but when it comes crashing down with a bang I’m like a dog who flattens its ears and crawls in a corner. Lightning I find entertaining, but at the same time scary, considering the damage it can cause.

Yesterday night, or shall I say yesterday morning, as it happened around 5:00 a.m., Toronto experienced one of its worst thunderstorms: pelting rain, one thunder bolt after another and lightning that set the sky on fire for close to an hour. And what did I do … I slept right through it.
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When asked whether the storm had woken me up, I asked “What storm?” I hadn’t heard or seen a thing.

This was not the first time this happened. Many years ago, while still living in Johannesburg, the city was rocked by a tremendous earthquake. When it hit, the house shuddered on its foundations, chandeliers trembled, and books and ornaments fell off surfaces. Or so I was told. When my friends and neighbors discussed the event the next day, I had nothing to contribute as I never stopped catching zzzzzzzzzs.

I’ve also been known to sleep through a fire alarm. How this is possible is a mystery even to me. The fire alarm in our condo building produces a piercing sound. Every condo is fitted with a unit, with an additional two units in the corridor. It is so loud that I often wonder if it endangers our hearing.

That particular night though I wasn’t bothered at all. When asked later about the alarm, and I stated that I hadn’t heard anything. A building official came to test the alarm to see if it worked. It did indeed. He gave me strange look and commented “You must be a terrific sleeper.”

A terrific sleeper? Not really, in fact I have problems sleeping. Most of the time I only go to bed when I feel dead tired and can hardly keep my eyes open. Once in bed though I’m wide awake. Then I lie there, gazing up at the ceiling, tossing and turning, eventually switching on the light to read a book.

With a book it can go either way. Either the story is boring and after a few pages I feel tired enough to give sleeping another go, or the story is captivating and I keep turning pages.
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Once I’m asleep though everything changes. A proverbial cannon can go off next to me and I won’t stir. 

If you like my blog, you might like my books. 

www.connymanero.weebly.com

My cats' reaction to a fire drill

We had our monthly fire drill yesterday. In theory everybody in the building has to do down to a gathering point in the garden; in practice nobody leaves their units. It was -35 deg C (-31 deg F) … do you really think people were keen to go outside? So basically we just had to put up with a lot of noise.

While I knew what was going on, the cats had no clue and as such suffered a certain amount of anxiety. Although, “suffered” is pushing it a bit.

The photos you’re about to see are old, but they are a true reflection of how Charlotte, Mickey, Gabriel, Chanel and Holly behaved during the fire drill.

Continue reading at:

http://connymanero.weebly.com/blog/my-cats-reaction-to-a-fire-drill

From the frying pan into the fire

A month or two ago, the building where we live installed a new fire alarm. 

Residents complained that the old fire alarm made too much noise.  They had a point, the alarm sounded like an old-fashioned coffee grinder.  On and on and on it went until we were all half deaf.

Was there ever a fire?  Of course not, the alarm was tripped because someone let dinner burn or by obnoxious kids.  Regardless, when the alarm was set off, the fire brigade visited the building and $500 had to be paid.

After yet another false alarm, the fire marshal suggested that a new fire alarm system was installed.  And so it was.

The new alarm was different from the old one.  Instead of one alarm box in the corridor, every single condo unit was fitted with its own alarm system.

Just what exactly that meant became apparent the first time the alarm went off … OMG the thing was so loud we had to yell at each other to be heard.  The thing went peep, peep, peep, on and on and on.

While annoying during the day, at night it was absolutely unbearable.  Nobody, but absolutely nobody, got another wink of sleep.  I tried to block out the noise by putting my fingers in my ears and by putting a pillow over my head, nothing helped.

Tonight the alarm was yet again set off and when the peep, peep, peep, started I nearly jumped out of my skin.

We got creative though, to block out the noise, Dieter held a pillow against the ceiling speaker.

This position was not the most comfortable one though, so he had to come up with a better system that was not as strenuous on the arm muscles.  He found it in the form of a broom.

Of course, it’s not much fun just standing there, one has to have some form of entertainment.  As it turns out, Dieter can block the noise with a broom stick pushed against a pillow and read a book at the same time.

Yep, we Maneros are multi taskers …

Am I too violent?

There are days that all is right with the world and you feel perfectly happy and content, and then there are days that you could kill someone with your bare hands.  Take a guess what kind of day it is today …

It started last night.  One moment I was sound asleep, with Gabriel next to me and Charlotte by my feet, the next I thought WWIII had started.  A high pitched sound screeched  “PEEP, PEEP, PEEP …. PEEP, PEEP, PEEP …. PEEP, PEEP, PEEP!”  It was the newly installed fire alarm and I hate it with a passion. 

The old fire alarm only sounded in the building’s hallways.  It was loud and sounded like a coffee grinder, but it was bearable.  This new system, that the local fire brigade decided upon is not only MUCH LOUDER but installed in every unit.

Gabriel and Charlotte flew off the bed and went into hiding underneath it, while I tried to drown out the noise by holding a pillow over my head.  The pillow somewhat softened the noise, but it was still too loud to go back to sleep with.

From 3:00 until 3:20 the peeping sound went on, and on, and on.  Finally it stopped and I think everyone in the building let out a collective sigh of relief.

Not for long though, at 3:30 the peeping started again.  If I had had a gun, I would have shot the alarm; if I had a baseball bat, I would have smashed it to pieces; if I had strong muscles I would have ripped the alarm out of the ceiling and thrown it out the window.

Once again I covered my ears, tried to drown out the sound, but it didn’t work.  To distract myself I started counting the series of “PEEP, PEEP, PEEP’s”.  I got to 172.

Finally, the peeping stopped and a voice came over the intercom announcing that the fire alarm was faulty and that the mechanic was on his way. 

If I had my way with the fire brigade whose bright idea this was, and the man who installed this devious device, none of them would be breathing today.

I know, I’m a violent person, but can you blame me?